Conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito warned Saturday that support for free speech, particularly on college campuses, is “dangerously waning” as part of a commencement speech at Franciscan University of Steubenville, a Catholic college in Ohio.
His words refer to the unrest on various college campuses across the country as a result of protests against Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
“The troubled waters around the world right now outside this beautiful campus are undermining some of our most fundamental principles,” Alito said.
“Support for free speech is dangerously low,” he added, especially on college campuses, where free speech should be protected the most.
“Very few colleges live up to that ideal. This place is one of them … but things are not so good in the wider world,” Alito said.
While Alito’s support for free speech had its limits, it was notable the only opposition In 2011, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that members of the conservative Westboro Baptist Church had the right to free speech to picket a military veteran’s funeral.
“Our deep national commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case,” he wrote in dissent.
Alito, a Catholic, has often sounded the alarm about attacks on religious freedom and has often voted in favor of expanding religious rights.
“Religious freedom is also under threat,” he told the graduating students. “When you go out into the world, you may find yourself in a job, community or social environment where you will be pressured to support ideas you don’t believe in or to give up your core beliefs. It will be up to you to stand firm.”
The Supreme Court is poised to issue major rulings in the coming weeks on a number of controversial issues, including abortion, gun rights and the impeachment of former President Donald Trump for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Alito, in 2022, overturned Roe v. abortion rights. The author of the decision in Wade is one of the few judges who speaks publicly when preparing court decisions.
On Friday, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas condemned “evil and falsehood”. he encountered while speaking at a judicial conference in Alabama.
He and his wife, Ginny Thomas, a conservative political activist, have both been in the spotlight in recent years. He was criticized for not following ethical rules Supports Trump’s efforts protesting election results.
At another court conference Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative justice in Texas, said Friday that the Supreme Court’s unpopular decisions at the time could later become “a piece of American constitutional law.”