(Washington) One of the nine conservative justices of the United States Supreme Court claimed in a rare interview published Friday that he and some of his colleagues had become a potential “target of assassination” after the leak that revealed last year that the temple of law was preparing to overturn the constitutional right to abortion.
Author of the decision that effectively buried the federal abortion guarantee by referring the question to the states, Samuel Alito told the Wall Street Journal that he had “a pretty good idea” about the author of this leak, who had made the effect of a bomb in the country in May 2022. But he did not say more about the presumed identity of this person.
The Supreme Court has been profoundly overhauled by former Republican President Donald Trump who brought in three judges, solidifying his conservative majority (six judges out of nine).
“Those of us who were considered to be in the majority, as having approved my draft decision, were really the (potential) target of assassination,” he said. “It was rational for people to believe they could stop the decision by killing one of us,” he added.
Mr. Alito said he did not feel “physically in danger, because we have a lot of protection”.
He said he was moving “in what is basically a tank”, “and I’m not really supposed to go anywhere without the tank and without my police officers”.
As for the leak, “I personally have a pretty clear idea of who’s responsible, but naming someone requires a different level of evidence,” he said.
The publication of the draft decision, he claimed, “created an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust” at the court.
“This year, I think, we’re trying to get back to normal as much as possible… But it’s taken a toll,” he said.
This unprecedented leak, revealed by the Politico site, had caused an earthquake. The media said it had obtained the draft of a majority decision written by Samuel Alito.
In this text, the magistrate said that Roe v. Wade, who nearly half a century ago held that the US Constitution protected women’s right to abortion, was “completely unfounded from the start.”
“We believe that Roe v. Wade must be overturned,” added Samuel Alito, for whom the right to abortion “is not protected by any provision of the Constitution.”
The decision finally fell almost two months after the leak, on June 24, 2022.
Today, “we are heavily criticized every day, and I think that’s often unfair,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “And nobody, almost nobody defends us.”
Asked about the revelations of an American media on the largesse of a billionaire to one of his colleagues at the Court, the conservative Clarence Thomas, and the ethical questions raised, Mr. Alito said he preferred not to broach the subject.
