United States Supreme Court judge Samuel Alito mocks world leaders over abortion ruling

• Justice Samuel Alito was giving a speech at a conference in Rome.
• Joked that UK PM Boris Johnson had “paid the price” for opposing the abortion ruling.
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•  Prince Harry compared the decision to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, he said.

A conservative member of the United States Supreme Court judge Samuel Alito has mocked world leaders who criticised last month’s ruling that overturned abortion rights in the United States.

The ruling’s author, Justice Samuel Alito, dismissed criticism from a number of prominent figures, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

He joked that Mr Johnson, who is set to leave office in September, had “paid the price” for opposing the verdict.

Mr. Alito, a devout Catholic, was giving a speech at a conference in Rome.

“I had the honour this term of writing I think the only supreme court decision in the history of that institution that has been lambasted by a whole string of foreign leaders who felt perfectly fine commenting on American law,” Mr Alito said.

“One of these was Boris Johnson, but he paid the price,” he said, drawing laughter from the audience. Mr Johnson, who announced his intention to resign earlier this month after a string of scandals, had called the ruling “a big step backwards”.

Mr. Alito also mentioned French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, who earlier this month condemned the “rolling back of constitutional rights” in the United States in a speech to the United Nations.

“What really wounded me was when the Duke of Sussex addressed the United Nations and seemed to compare the decision whose name may not be spoken with the Russian attack on Ukraine,” Mr Alito said.

In his address to the United Nations, Prince Harry appeared to be referring to the abortion ruling when he said, “From the horrific war in Ukraine to the rollback of constitutional rights here in the United States, we are witnessing a global assault on democracy and freedom…”

Mr. Alito’s previously unannounced speech was delivered on July 21 to the Religious Liberty Conference and was made public after the University of Notre Dame, which hosted the event, posted footage online on Thursday night.

He stated that religious liberty was “under attack in many places because it is dangerous to those who want complete power.”

Mr Alito, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by President George W Bush in 2006, made an unusual intervention for a Supreme Court justice. Justices on America’s highest court are usually expected to stay out of political debates.

Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez said on Twitter that the top judge’s “politicised remarks” should worry voters, adding that the “Supreme Court is in a legitimacy crisis.”

Mr. Alito’s intervention came on the same day that a liberal member of the court, Justice Elena Kagan, warned that losing voter confidence in the court’s conservative majority would be a “dangerous thing for a democracy.”

“I’m not talking about any particular decision or even any particular series of decisions, but if over time the court loses all connection with the public and with public sentiment, that’s a dangerous thing for a democracy,” she said at a conference in Montana,

Opinion polls indicate that trust in the court is at an all-time low in the aftermath of several contentious decisions by the court. Only 25% of those polled said they had faith in the body.

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