LEGITIMATE DECISIONS

At a conference in Colorado Springs last month, John Roberts, the Chief Justice of the United States, reflected on what he said had been an “unfortunate” year for the Supreme Court.

- Amy Davidson Sorkin

He hadn’t liked driving to work past “barricades,” he said, an allusion to the angry marches and rallies that accompanied a number of the Court’s cases last term. Many of the protests were directed at Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. And he didn’t appreciate hearing people say that the Court, with its radical right swerve, had in any way undermined its legitimacy. “They are certainly free to criticize the Supreme Court if they want to,” he said, which is good to know. “But I don’t understand the connection between opinions that people disagree with and the legitimacy of the Court. If the Court doesn’t retain its legitimate function of interpreting the Constitution, I’m not sure who would take up that mantle.”