Ex-Justice Breyer takes shot at Trump-appointed colleagues for hurting SCOTUS reputation

In a new book written by retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, he argues that the three justices appointed to the Court by Donald Trump should be concerned about the decline of public trust as a result of the Court's rulings.

In his book "Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism" that's set to be published this month, Breyer referenced Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett only as "new justices" who have been on the Court for "two or three years," according an excerpt provided by The New York Times.

"Major changes take time, and there are many years left for the newly appointed justices to decide whether they want to build the law using only textualism and originalism," Breyer writes, adding his former colleagues "may well be concerned about the decline in trust in the court — as shown by public opinion polls."

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In an interview with The Times that was published this Monday, Breyer said that something "important is going on" in the sense that the Court has lost its way.

As Newsweek points out, the most recent Gallup polling shows that only 41 percent of U.S. adults approve of how SCOTUS justices are performing.

"The Court's approval rating first fell to a record-low 40 percent in September 2021 after it declined to block a controversial Texas abortion law, which came nine months before the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to an abortion. The Court's low rating has not recovered since," Newsweek's report stated.

Speaking to The Times, Breyer addressed the subject of the Court's position over abortion, saying there are "too many questions."

"Are they really going to allow women to die on the table because they won't allow an abortion which would save her life? I mean, really, no one would do that. And they wouldn't do that. And there'll be dozens of questions like that," he said.