Supreme Court

Neighbors say Alitos used security detail car to intimidate them after sign dispute

Project on Government Oversight - Sometime in the coming weeks, the Supreme Court justices will be releasing their decision in Trump v. United States, ruling whether former President Donald J. Trump can face charges for his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, or if presidents are entitled to immunity from criminal charges simply because they are presidents. The justices are also considering a second case related to January 6. These are two cases of enormous consequence for our democracy and justice system — yet there are two Supreme Court justices who have refused to recuse themselves despite the appearance of partiality.

One is Justice Samuel Alito. The Alitos flew flags that are symbols of the “Stop the Steal” movement in the front yards of their homes in Virginia and New Jersey. This apparent conflict of interest prompted outrage and calls for his recusal from the cases — which Alito has rejected. And of course, Justice Clarence Thomas, whose wife Ginni Thomas was entangled in the “Stop the Steal” movement, also did not recuse. A toothless ethics code and a weak federal law that requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to charge a sitting court justice with an ethics violation — something the DOJ is unlikely to do in this case — means that justices get to decide for themselves whether or not they should disqualify from proceedings. The January 6 cases are yet another glaring reminder that we need major Supreme Court ethics reforms.

New Republic - Early in the Alito nomination fight, Democrats uncovered a memo the judge wrote while he was working for the Reagan administration in 1985 that articulated his opposition to legal abortion. He advised against waging a “frontal assault on Roe” only because such a maneuver would prove politically unpopular, and instead advocated for a steady demolition of access to reproductive health care at the state level. Until the 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe, the Alito playbook is exactly what many Southern and heartland states followed to make abortion all but impossible within their borders.The memo did not stop Alito from lying to the late Senator Edward Kennedy, whose diary revealed that, while meeting privately in Kennedy’s office, Alito assured him that he would never vote to overturn Roe. Unlike Republican Senator Susan Collins, who believed the same lie from Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, Kennedy was not gullible enough to vote in favor of Alito’s confirmation. 

The P.R. firm handling the Alito nomination insisted that Republicans counter with the claim that, as a lawyer for the Reagan administration, Alito was only reflecting the views of his client. Planned Parenthood warned that Alito would “gut Roe” if he had the opportunity, but the media soon dropped stories on the memo.