Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)

Roberts defends legitimacy of Supreme Court

Effort to find abortion decision leaker ongoing

- By Colleen Slevin

DENVER — Chief Justice John Roberts defended the authority of the Supreme Court to interpret the Constituti­on, saying its role should not be called into question just because people disagree with its decisions.

When asked to reflect on the last year at the court in his first public appearance since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Roberts said Friday he was concerned that lately some critics of the court’s controvers­ial decisions have questioned the legitimacy of the court, which he said was a mistake. He did not mention any specific cases or critics by name.

“If the court doesn’t retain its legitimate function of interpreti­ng the constituti­on, I’m not sure who would take up that mantle. You don’t want the political branches telling you what the law is, and you don’t want public opinion to be the guide about what the appropriat­e decision is,” Roberts said while being interviewe­d by two judges from the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at its conference in Colorado Springs.

Roberts described the last year as an unusual and difficult one, pointing to the public not being allowed inside the court, closed in 2020 because of the coronaviru­s pandemic, as one hardship. He also said it was “gut wrenching” to drive into the Supreme Court that was surrounded by barricades every day.

The barriers were installed in May when protests erupted outside the court and outside the homes of some Supreme Court justices after there was an unpreceden­ted leak of a draft opinion indicating the justices were planning to overturn Roe v. Wade, which provided women constituti­onal protection­s for abortion for nearly 50 years. The barriers are gone and the public will be allowed back inside when the court’s new session begins in October but an investigat­ion ordered by Roberts into the leak continues.

Speaking at the same conference Thursday, Justice Neil Gorsuch said it is “terribly important” to identify the leaker and said he is expecting a report on the progress of the investigat­ion, “I hope soon.”

“Improper efforts to influence judicial decision-making, from whatever side, from whomever, are a threat to the judicial decision-making process,” Gorsuch said.

The leaked draft was largely incorporat­ed into Justice Samuel Alito’s final opinion in June that overturned Roe v. Wade in a case upholding Mississipp­i’s law banning abortion after 15 weeks. The ruling paved the way for severe abortion restrictio­ns or bans in nearly half of U.S. states.

In June’s ruling, Roberts, appointed to the court in 2005 by former President George W. Bush, voted to uphold Mississipp­i’s law but he did not join the conservati­ve justices in also overturnin­g Roe v. Wade, as well as Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the right to end a pregnancy. He wrote that there was no need to overturn the broad precedents to uphold the state law, saying he would take “a more measured course.”

Roberts has spoken out repeatedly about the importance of the judiciary’s independen­ce and to rebut perception­s of the court as a political institutio­n not much different than Congress or the presidency.

When asked what the public might not know about how the court works, Roberts emphasized the collegiali­ty among the justices and the court’s tradition of shaking hands before starting conference­s or taking the bench. After the justices might disagree about a decision, everyone eats together in the court’s dining room where they talk about everything but work, he said.

 ?? Erin Schaff
The New York Times ?? Chief Justice John Roberts sits during a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington in 2021. Roberts made his first public appearance since the court overturned Roe v. Wade Friday night at a judicial conference in Colorado.
Erin Schaff The New York Times Chief Justice John Roberts sits during a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington in 2021. Roberts made his first public appearance since the court overturned Roe v. Wade Friday night at a judicial conference in Colorado.

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