Justice Samuel Alito, author of leaked indictment of
Roe vs. Wade, ducked a conference of his colleagues.
The
Guardian reports, "The conservative justice has bailed on a conference of senior judges Thursday in New Orleans,
Reuters reports, just three days after his opinion indicating the high court would overturn its landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision that guaranteed the right to abortion nationwide was leaked.
"According to the news agency, Alito had been set to appear at the 5th US circuit court of appeals’ judicial conference, a gathering of judges from the New Orleans-based federal appeals court and the district courts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, a person familiar with the matter said.
"But he has since canceled, the person said, and
Patricia McCabe, a spokesperson for the supreme court, said he was not attending. No reason was given for why Alito was not going."
An educated guess can easily be made, and it would explain why Alito doesn't want to talk about it.
Overturning
Roe is very unpopular with Americans. Also, Alito's colleagues may take exception to the fact that he favors criminalizing a medical procedure on the state level. Indeed, that has already been done some southern states.
Overturning
Roe is so unpopular even several Republicans are opposed to it. They didn't want to talk about it.
Slate reports, "It is difficult to describe what an achievement the overturning of
Roe v. Wade would be for the conservative movement. It is, more than maybe any other issue, foundational to the movement itself."
That said, however, "Leading Republicans on Tuesday preferred to make the story of Politico’s
bombshell publication of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion overturning
Roe v. Wade not about the elimination of the right to an abortion. They tried to divert attention to the scandalous leak of that news itself."
This is how the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell described the leak. "“Liberals want to rip the blindfold off Lady Justice. They want to override impartiality with intimidation. They want to elevate mob rule over the rule of law. This lawless action should be investigated and punished to the fullest extent possible.”
There was nothing about the conservative accomplishment enabled by the Supreme Court which will allow states to criminalize abortion, which some southern states have done already. Some states are considering the possibility of bringing criminal charges against a woman who got an abortion.
Little wonder as to why Republicans are not celebrating. This kind of thing can have a dramatic effect on the November elections, and Republicans want to hush up their achievement,