Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized Justice Alito's recent remarks as "politicized" in a tweet.
Alito had joked about global leaders' shock at the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Ocasio-Cortez said SCOTUS is in a "legitimacy crisis" and said the remarks are "alarming."
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized into Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on for "alarming" remarks he made about world leader reacting to the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
Ocasio-Cortez tweeted a clip from Alito's speech at a conference on religious liberty in Rome on July 21, in which Alito joked about how figures like UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Prince Harry had reacted to the decision.
She said the comments were "politicized" and demonstrated a "legitimacy crisis" in the court.
She also called on Alito to provide an update into the court's investigation into how the Roe v. Wade decision was leaked, an extremely unusual lapse in its procedures.
"Remember: it was Alito's opinion that leaked," she wrote. "That fact paired with his politicized remarks below should be alarming to anyone. The Supreme Court is in a legitimacy crisis. Chief Justice Roberts has a responsibility to share the progress & results of SCOTUS' leak investigation."
Alito, whose speech reflected on religious liberty as a global issue, quipped that Johnson, who resigned in early June, had "paid the price" for calling the Roe reversal a "step backwards."
He also said sarcastically that he was "really wounded" when Prince Harry appeared to criticize the decision in a speech to the UN.
Ocasio-Cortez was among a group of Democrats, including Reps. Cori Bush and Ilhan Omar, who were arrested last week outside the Supreme Court after they joined a protest in support of abortion rights that blocked traffic.
Trust in the Supreme Court has fallen to a historic low, according to a Gallup poll of 1,015 adults in June. That was conducted after the Roe v. Wade opinion had leaked, but before the justices announced their decision.
Alito could not be reached for comment.
PaxDramaticus on July 29th, 2022 at 11:14 UTC »
This is really quite alarming. Not only do we have someone in the highest branches of government permitting states to impose a particular religious view on Americans as a matter of law, but we have that same person casually suggesting that god will punish people for expressing a contrary opinion about it. You cannot trust such a person to protect the first amendment equally for all Americans, now can you.
BlankNothingNoDoer on July 29th, 2022 at 11:13 UTC »
I do agree with her that when a sitting Supreme Court Justice is joking about world leaders and their opinions, it can produce a crisis of legitimacy in and of itself.
However, I also think it goes a bit farther than that because the crisis of legitimacy would still be there even without Alito's remarks simply because of the way the Supreme Court has been behaving itself in recent memory.
bjeebus on July 29th, 2022 at 10:54 UTC »
Alito is a complete piece of shit. "Win the battle of religious freedom." Like no one's coming to take your religious freedom asshole. We're just all looking for freedom from your religion. You go on believing whatever you want, but that doesn't mean the laws get to be based on your bronze age fan fiction.