Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Seems Reluctant To Appear in Public. Gee, I Wonder Why.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has canceled his first appearance scheduled since the draft of his majority opinion overturning Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey was leaked Monday night. He was supposed to appear at a judicial conference starting tonight but has suddenly decided he can’t actually make it. Hmm, I wonder why.

Speaking to Reuters, which first reported the news, a spokesperson for Alito didn’t give a reason for the cancelation, but I think we can guess! I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that he wasn’t too excited by the idea of having to appear in a room full of judges (or anyone, really) and be forced to explain the things he wrote in the leaked document.

I know I sure wouldn’t want to have to explain publicly why I wrote about how great it’ll be to rob half the population of their basic rights and bodily autonomy, how anyone who didn’t have rights when the Constitution was drafted (i.e. women, POC, basically anyone who isn’t a land-owning white man) can’t be guaranteed rights now, or why I chose to lay the groundwork for the reversal of so many civil rights, from gay marriage to childhood education to so, so much more.

It is truly amazing that the event Alito is avoiding is a conference with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is generally agreed upon as being the most conservative court in the country, to the point of being unabashedly extremist in its rulings. Alito doesn’t even want to face his like-minded peers right now.

Or perhaps Alito doesn’t want to face the chance of protestors at the event. The court has been taking precautions to put distance between itself and the public lately. I’m all for whatever the justices need to do to protect their physical safety (even Alito) but at the same time:

(image: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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