Irish Examiner view: Respect for US judiciary under threat

The Supreme Court was manipulated to appease a view regarded across America as being in the minority

A protester holds her sign expressing her feelings in Florida. Picture: Bob Self/The Florida Times-Union/AP

US Supreme Court judge Clarence Thomas, regarded as the most conservative of the nine justices on the court, stated in recent days that he believes the judiciary will be threatened if Americans were unwilling to live with outcomes they did not agree with. Justice Thomas told a judicial conference he was worried about declining respect for institutions and the rule of law as “it bodes ill for a free society”.

In the wake of the leaking of a pending judgment in Roe vs Wade, the landmark 1973 judgment that established women’s right to an abortion, Thomas expressed concerns about the different attitudes of the young and said they might not show the same respect for the law as previous generations.

His comments will do little to the restore confidence of those in the US who believe the potential overturning of Roe vs Wade was only made possible by the conservatives appointed to the Supreme Court by former president Donald Trump. That the highest US court was manipulated in such a fashion to appease a view regarded across the US as being in the minority and whose leaked decision on Roe vs Wade has sparked outrage, it is perhaps no wonder Justice Thomas believes the youth of the country no longer have the same respect for the law as their predecessors. 

His assertion may be correct but perhaps the question he should be asking is, why? Were he to understand that the use of the Supreme Court for short-term political gain was going to cause a backlash in any event, he might then extrapolate why the US judiciary is now under great threat.