Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on Wednesday stood up for Chief Justice John Roberts in the wake of the ‘Obamacare’ ruling, calling the right’s criticisms “unfortunate” and reflective of a “lack of understanding.”
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, the first female justice was asked about conservatives’ accusations that Roberts betrayed their movement by joining the court’s four liberals to uphold the Affordable Care Act.
“It’s unfortunate because I think comments like that demonstrate only too well the lack of understanding that some of our citizens have about the role of the judicial branch,” O’Connor said. “And I think the framers of our federal Constitution did a great job in understanding themselves that the judicial branch needed to be able to make independent decisions on the legitimacy, the lawfulness of acts on the state and federal level.”
