U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has reflected on the court’s 2022 landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization abortion ruling, calling it “the leading example” of a case that required courage from the justices. But he doesn't believe that the court will overturn the court's 2015 ruling making same-sex marriage a national right.
Alito spoke with CBS News’ Jan Crawford ahead of the release of his new book, So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, which is slated for publication Tuesday. In the interview, Alito discussed the country’s contentious political climate and some of the most consequential cases decided during his 20 years on the nation’s highest court. Alito wrote the 2022 Dobbsdecision, which held that the U.S.
Constitution does not contain a right to abortion. He also discussed Politico’s publication of a leaked draft opinion in the case several weeks before the ruling’s official release. “It was quite a shock,” he said.
“Within a relatively short period of time, the thought occurred to me, and I think to the others in the majority that … this would endanger us and it made us targets for assassination.” The assassination attempt against Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who joined the Dobbs majority, also came up during the interview.
“According to the statement that the individual in question made to the police, as I remember, he said his goal was to kill at least one justice in the majority and preferably three and his goal was to change the decision in the case,” Alito recalled.
“Whoever leaked it had knew or had good reason to know that that would be the consequence of leaking it and Politico knew or should have known that that would be the consequence of their decision to publish it,” he added.