CNN’s Fareed Zakaria: Justice Alito Mocking Foreign Critics ‘Really Damages the Court’s Legitimacy’

Appearing Sunday on CNN, network host Fareed Zakaria harshly criticized Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for mocking foreign leaders over their criticism of the high court’s Dobbs decision.

ICYMI: @FareedZakaria says Justice Alito's controversial speech mocking foreign leaders who slammed the decision overturning Roe "not only damages Alito, who looks like an idiot, but also damages the court…" pic.twitter.com/vLSkuANHth

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) July 31, 2022

A transcript is as follows:

JIM ACOSTA: You’ve spoken out about how the Supreme Court has become so political in recent months. I’m curious what you thought about the speech from conservative Justice Sam Alito, in which he mocked other world leaders for criticizing his decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. It was pretty trident stuff.

[…]

It sounds like Justice Alito is just needling his critics here and making light of what is a very serious situation here in the U.S. People are justifiably and understandably outraged about what is going on with the Supreme Court right now.

FAREED ZAKARIA: It is much worse than that. I think it really damages the court’s legitimacy. One of the things that has kept the court’s legitimacy over time has been a sense of dignity, a sense of majesty, a sense that the justices are doing what they are doing for serious constitutional reasons. They don’t pay attention to the chitter chatter, they don’t pay attention to trivial news. That is why cameras are not allowed into the Supreme Court. Otherwise, why are nine unelected people, with life tenure, allowed to make these incredibly important decisions about 330 million people’s lives? Nobody elected them.

The reason why they have that legitimacy, to put it very simply, is that they behave themselves, that they behave in accordance with the kind of dignity and majesty of the court. What Alito did, behaving like a cheap commentator, and not a particularly good one at that, was frankly disgusting. I thought it was the most undignified performance by a Supreme Court Justice I have seen in my lifetime. I don’t think that any of his predecessors would have done it. I think it is scandalous.