In the wake of the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, many Irish politicians have taken the time to give their tuppence worth on the matter for some inexplicable reason.
Of course you’d understand why the media would want to stick their oar in. The job of a commentator is to comment on the news, obviously, and this is undoubtedly a big international news story. So naturally they’re going to have a say on the issue, which is all perfectly fine and well.
But for highly-paid Irish legislators on six figures a year, whose job it is to deal with problems facing the Irish nation, it’s hard to think of an issue less relevant than a domestic court decision in another continent. Particularly during a crippling cost of living and energy crisis at home.
Which is why the Taoiseach taking the time to criticise the “politicisation of the judiciary” in US is absolutely out-of-line, not to mention bizarre.
As reported by the Irish Examiner:
“Ireland should avoid ‘politicisation of the judiciary’ as has happened in the United States”
The article reads:
“Micheál Martin said the decision last week to overturn Roe v Wade, which protected a woman’s right to choose in America, was the result of people being appointed to the court because of their political beliefs.
“The constitution and separation of powers are at the very heart of what happened in the United States,” Mr Martin said on Tuesday.
“Above everything else, we should avoid the politicisation of the judiciary because that’s what led to the decision in Roe V Wade.
…
“It is fair to say that the decision on Roe v Wade was quite shocking in many respects but fundamentally because it overturns 50 years of jurisprudence.”
Now, there’s so much about this that’s worth tackling.
First and foremost, Martin is essentially implying that he has a superior grasp of the US constitution than the American Supreme Court Justices do. Unbeknownst to us all, he apparently acquired a degree in American law while we weren’t looking, and graduated with honours, to the point where he can rebuke and contradict the country’s preeminent experts on their own country’s foundational legal text.
He confidently states, like it’s a fact, that the decision to overturn Roe was political – as if there are no legitimate legal arguments for it, and the justices were simply behaving as activists in their decision. And of course, by extension, this implies that America’s judicial system is corrupted and not impartial. That’s the clear subtext of what he’s saying. Not to mention, he also claims that the justices are all merely political appointees with no regard to their qualifications.
Now, you might agree with that idea, or you might disagree. But this is not the private opinion of some random bum off the street.
You and I, as ordinary plebs, can debate the merits of the US courts until the cows come home. But this is the leader of our country, essentially attacking the legitimacy of a foreign country’s legal system, without evidence, and for no reason at all. It’s difficult to think of a more inappropriate diplomatic faux pas – it’s frankly outrageous.
I mean, just think of this from the US perspective.
Imagine if Ireland’s Supreme Court made a ruling on an internal social issue which affected nobody but ourselves. And then suppose a high-ranking American politician totally outside the situation – say, Donald Trump while he was in office, or Ron De Santis – said “Ireland’s Supreme Court is totally politicised and bogus. All their judges are political appointees – that’s why Seamus Woulf was at the Golf Gate dinner hanging out with all the government politicians. The court’s decisions are all ideological”
I’m not claiming that, mind you – but imagine if someone did. What do you think Martin’s reaction would be?
Would he not be the first one to essentially say, in slightly more diplomatic language, “Donald and Ron – kindly piss off and mind your damn business. Butt out of my country’s affairs.” And in such a situation, this reaction would be absolutely appropriate and quite right.
And yet that’s exactly what the Taoiseach has done here – offered his unsolicited opinion on a domestic US issue, for no discernable reason at all, much in the same way his government hopped onto the George Floyd and Black Lives Matter cause when that was trendy.
After all, Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion for why the ruling was struck down is 213 pages long. Either the Taoiseach read it all, in which case he has far too much time on his hands during domestic crises, or he didn’t, in which case he’s simply talking out of his posterior. In fact, if I was in the press pool, I’d love to ask Martin to defend which part of the reasoning for the decision he believes was politically motivated. I’d bet money he would not be able to answer.
Speaking of Seamus Woulf, by the way, the Taoiseach never mentioned how the opposition trying to have him impeached was political, with a judge almost being removed due to PR pressure campaigns – despite the fact that this happened in our own country just recently. He’d rather talk about Roe vs. Wade in another country than our own justice system coming under fire at home.
Apart from anything, it’s just a ridiculous and nonsensical point on its face.
When you think of a court being politicised, you imagine the court effectively legislating and deciding the law of the land without a democratic mandate from the people. You think of a handful of activists in robes and puffy white wigs deciding policy for the whole country with little regard for the legal merits of their rulings.
But this is exactly what Roe vs. Wade did when it initially came in back in 1973.
A small handful of judges ruled that abortion should be legalised across the entire country, over the heads of the voting public and without consulting the electorate at all. And apparently, this was not political according to Micheál – he had no problem with this whatsoever, and never breathed a word of complaint about it.
But when later judges from the same court say “Actually, we don’t want to get involved in this – the public should vote on it and decide in their own jurisdictions what abortion policy should be,” that’s supposedly the court being politicised in Martin’s mind. When, in fact, it’s literally the exact opposite.
Actually, by overturning Roe, the court did exactly what Micheál did when he voted to repeal the 8th Amendment – it allowed the elected government to decide whether abortion is legal or illegal. Apparently America’s legal system is broken and an overly-politicised shambles for doing exactly what Micheál did here just a couple of years ago. Figure that one out.
Ultimately, these comments are more of the cringeworthy Americanisation of Irish society, while our own country goes to rack and ruin. If Irish politicians like Martin are so worried about American politics to the detriment of Irish problems, they’re more than welcome to go and live over there and rant about American gun laws or Supreme Court picks to their hearts’ content.
But if they insist on staying here and holding onto power, it’d be great if our leaders could learn the very valuable skill of being able to mind one’s own business.