Justices cheered at conservative group’s anniversary dinner
WASHINGTON – Four of the five Supreme Court justices who overturned the constitutional right to abortion showed up at the conservative Federalist Society’s black-tie dinner marking its 40th anniversary.
Justice Samuel Alito got a long, loud ovation Thursday night from a crowd of 2,000 people, most in tuxedos and gowns, when another speaker praised his opinion in June that overturned Roe v. Wade, long a target of judicial conservatives.
At a moment when opinion surveys show that Americans think the court is becoming more political and give it dismal approval ratings, the justices turned out to celebrate the group that helped then-President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans move the American judiciary, including the Supreme Court, to the right.
The Federalist Society has no partisan affiliation and takes no position in election campaigns, but it is closely aligned with Republican priorities, including the drive to overturn Roe.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Alito offered brief remarks that steered well clear of the court’s work, though Alito praised the Federalist Society for its success in the Trump years and hoped it would continue. “Boy, is your work needed today,” he said.
Barrett’s only allusion to the abortion case came when she responded to the crowd’s roar of approval
when she was introduced. “It’s really nice to have a lot of noise made not by protesters outside my house,” she said.
Amid heavy security, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh also were in attendance in the main hall at Washington’s Union Station, where the silhouette of James Madison, the group’s logo, was projected on the walls. Justice Clarence Thomas, the other member of the abortion case majority, was not at
the dinner.
Norm Eisen, an ethics expert who served in the Obama administration and later helped draft the articles of impeachment against Trump for his first impeachment in 2019, said the justices showed a brazen disregard for ethical appearances because the organization’s mission is to move the law in a conservative direction.
“While there is no legal
the daunting tasks ahead, “Medicine, communications, social services are returning . ... Life is returning,” he said.
Ukrainian intelligence urged Russian soldiers who might still be in the city to surrender in anticipation of Ukrainian forces arriving. “Your command left you to the mercy of fate,” it said in a statement.
A Ukrainian regional official, Serhii Khlan, disputed the Russian Defense Ministry’s claim that its 30,000 retreating troops took all 5,000 pieces of equipment with them, saying “a lot” of hardware got left behind.
The final Russian withdrawal came six weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed the Kherson region and three other Ukrainian provinces, vowing they would remain Russian forever. Moscow’s forces still control about 70% of the Kherson region.
In Kyiv, celebrations on the capital’s main square continued into the night, with people popping open wine bottles and shouting “Glory to Ukraine.” Some expressed surprise at the speed of events.
“I thought the Russian army would defend and there’d be a kind of siege like in Mariupol,” the eastern port devastated in weeks of battle, said Andrey Trach, a resident of Odessa who works in Kyiv. “It’s a very significant day for Ukraine because it shows the entire world that Ukraine can and definitely will defend every square kilometer and inch of territory.”
French President Emmanuel Macron sent tweets in French and Ukrainian saluting Ukraine’s recapture of Kherson, calling it “an important step toward the full restoration of its sovereign rights.”
The Kremlin remained defiant Friday, insisting the withdrawal in no way represented an embarrassment for Putin. Moscow continues to view the entire Kherson region as part of Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
He added that the Kremlin doesn’t regret holding festivities to celebrate the annexation of occupied or partially occupied regions of Ukraine, deferring all questions about the Kherson withdrawal to the Defense Ministry.
Putin has so far been silent about Kherson, despite making several public appearances since the withdrawal was announced.
Shortly before the Russian announcement, Zelenskyy’s office described the situation in the province as “difficult.” It reported Russian shelling of villages and towns Ukrainian forces reclaimed in recent weeks during their counteroffensive in the Kherson region.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s army said the
Russian forces left looted homes, damaged power lines and mined roads in their wake. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak had predicted the departing Russians would seek to turn Kherson into a “city of death” and would continue to shell it after relocating across the Dnieper River.
Some quarters of the Ukrainian government barely disguised their glee at the pace of the Russian withdrawal.
“The Russian army leaves the battlefields in a triathlon mode: steeplechase, broad jumping, swimming,” Andriy Yermak, a senior presidential adviser, tweeted. Social media videos showed villagers hugging Ukrainian troops.
Recapturing Kherson city could provide Ukraine a strong position from which to expand its southern counteroffensive to other Russian-occupied areas, potentially including Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014.
From its forces’ new positions on the eastern bank, however, the Kremlin could try to escalate the war, which U.S. assessments showed may already have killed or wounded tens of thousands of civilians and hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
Gen. Ben Hodges, former commanding general of U.S. Army forces in Europe, described the Russian retreat as a “colossal failure” and said he expects Ukrainian commanders will keep pressure on Russia’s depleted forces ahead of a possible future push for Crimea next year.
“It’s too early to be planning the victory parade, for sure. But I would expect by the end of this year – so in the next, let’s say, eight weeks – the Ukrainians are going to be in place to start setting the conditions for the decisive phase of this campaign, which is the liberation of Crimea, which I think will happen by the summer,” he said in a telephone interview.
Meanwhile, a Russian S-300 missile strike overnight killed seven people in Mykolaiv, about 68 kilometers (42 miles) from Kherson’s regional capital, Zelenskyy’s office said. Rescue crews sifted through the rubble of a five-story residential building in search of survivors.
Standing in front of what used to be his family’s apartment, Roman Mamontov awaited news about his missing mother.
The 16-year-old said he found “nothing there” when he opened the door to look for his mother after the missile struck. Friday was her 34th birthday.
“My mind was blank at that moment. I thought it could not be true,” he said. “The cake she prepared for the celebration is still there.”
Zelenskyy called the missile strike “the terrorist state’s cynical response to our successes at the front.”