(AFP) – Justice Samuel Alito warned Sunday he was worried about the future of the US Supreme Court due to what he called an extreme level of public rhetoric and pressure over its rulings. The court in recent years has issued decisions that rocked US society to its core: eliminating the decades-old federal right to abortion and granting President Donald Trump — indicted four times in his first term — broad immunity from prosecution for official actions taken while in office.
The court is traditionally seen as being above the noise and fray of American politics, but recent polls show it is increasingly unpopular and untrusted. And public pressure has intensified, most notably from Trump himself, who has waged an unprecedented campaign of speaking out loudly on how he thinks the court should rule on everything from tariffs to birthright citizenship. When judges he appointed have ruled against him, Trump has slammed them by name, calling them disloyal.
In a rare interview granted as he plugs a book he just published, Alito, 76, told Fox News Sunday that he and the other eight justices on the conservative-dominated court try to ignore statements from public figures. “There has been a concerted effort to intimidate the court and justices on the court to try to influence us to decide cases,” he said. “I am concerned about the future of the court,” Alito said.
Alongside disappointment over a series of rulings giving Trump broad leeway on several issues, many Americans are angry over news that justices including Clarence Thomas have over the years accepted gifts and luxury travel from wealthy people, raising ethics issues. A Gallup survey released last week said Americans’ views of the institution are at their least positive since the organization began polling on the court in 1972. Only 34 percent of US adults approve of the job the court is doing, essentially unchanged from the record-low 33 percent approval tallied in July, Gallup said.
Alito also addressed again the bombshell event of May 2022 when someone leaked the court’s upcoming ruling that would do away with the right to abortion. He reiterated that he has an idea of who did it. “I do have an opinion, but the evidence available at this time is not strong enough for the court or for me to say this is the person who was responsible,” Alito said.
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