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Salon
Salon
Politics
Bob Brigham

Justices attend right-wing gala

US Supreme Court Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. (Photo illustration by Salon/Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images)

Four U.S. Supreme Court justices attended the black-tie dinner gala at the first Federal Society convention since the court overturned Roe vs. Wade in its controversial Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health decision.

Associated Press correspondent Mark Sherman reported Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh were in attendance at the group's 40th-anniversary celebration

Sherman noted it is four-fifths of the majority of the court that overturned Roe. Controversial Justice Clarence Thomas was the fifth.

Three of the four justices in attendance were nominated by Donald Trump.

"Leonard Leo, [Federalist Society] co-chair, helped Trump vet judicial nominees. Group says it's independent of partisan politics," Sherman reported. "But there is close alignment with GOP priorities."

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance wondered if the justices at the dinner had forgotten their job.

"As with so many of our institutions, the judiciary can only do its work when the public has confidence in it," Vance noted. "Some of our judges seem to have forgotten that and that they have life tenure to serve the American people, not the political agenda of the people who put them in place."

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