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.