Politics

Overturning Roe V. Wade Required ‘Courage’ From Supreme Court Justices, Alito Reflects

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Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito highlighted the threat political violence poses to the judiciary in a recent interview.

“The physical threats and the harassment represents something new in our society and something that is quite disturbing … And I think it’s a danger to the courts, and I think it’s a danger to others in public life,” Alito said an interview with CBS News being released Monday. The 76-year-old conservative justice’s observation follows multiple instances of left-wing activists signaling a support for violence against public figures who disagree with their ideologies.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, which overturned Roe v. Wade, required “courage” from all of the justices in the majority.

“We didn’t know it when we produced the draft that was leaked, but it required courage to go ahead with that because of the implications,” he said.

He told CBS News’ @JanCBS that he lost friends over the Dobbs decision. And he called physical threats and harassment “quite disturbing” and “a danger for the courts.”

— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 2, 2026

Alito, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, wrote the majority opinion accompanying the June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade and returned the issue to the states.

POLITICO reported in May 2022, however, that it received a draft of the opinion before it was officially published. Since the shocking leak, there have been multiple threats against the country’s highest court, particularly against its conservative members.

Nicholas Roske, a 29-year-old California resident, was sentenced to eight years in prison in October 2025 after he pleaded guilty for attempting to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, an appointee of President Donald Trump, according to a Department of Justice press release.

U.S. Marshals encountered Roske outside Kavanaugh’s Maryland house in June 2022 with a tactical knife, firearm, and dozens of rounds of ammunition. After his arrest, Roske stated he was upset over the leaked draft of the Dobbs opinion.

After an eight-month investigation spanning 126 formal interviews, the Supreme Court reported in January 2023 that investigators had not identified the leaker.

Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett, appointees of Presidents Barack Obama and Trump, respectively, asked the House Appropriations Committee in a July 14, 2026, hearing to increase funding for the Supreme Court’s security by 10% for fiscal year 2027.

Kagan told the Committee that threats against the Court rose 35% in 2026, and 25% the year prior. Barrett reflected she “didn’t expect that performing this service was going to put me in the position of explaining to my children what a bulletproof vest was and why I had to wear one.”

Twenty-five percent of respondents identifying as “very liberal” indicated they disagreed with the statement that “political violence is never justified,” whereas 3% of those who identified as “very conservative” did the same, according to a YouGov poll conducted after conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s Sept. 10, 2025, assassination.

The full CBS News interview will air Monday — the same day the Supreme Court begins its 2026-2027 term. Alito’s book defending his judicial philosophy, “So Ordered,” is scheduled to be released Tuesday.