Justice Alito reportedly gave a full-throated culture wars speech to the Federalist Society a few weeks ago. The contrast between this public display and Barrett’s confirmation hearings is extremely stark. It gives the lie to the idea that Supreme Court justices put their religious views in a box when they analyze cases–not that we ever really thought they did.
Ordinarily, I would find this kind of public statement by a justice reprehensible, but in this instance, I think it brings clarity to two issues:
- It refutes the idea on the left that right-wing culture warriors are just poor illiterate saps who vote against their economic interests for the benefit of plutocrats; but
- It also makes it clear that the right’s claim to be powerless in the face of the blue cultural onslaught are also false. Alito is, after all, one of the most important men in the country, because of, not in spite of, his reactionary Catholic beliefs.