Samuel Alito just can’t stop himself from undermining the Supreme Court.
Only a few weeks after being caught flying insurrectionist flags at not one but two of his homes, the conservative Supreme Court justice has again been caught in a scandal of his own making. This time around, a secret audio recording captured Alito dismissing the idea of political compromise with the left while agreeing that what America needs is a rapid return to “godliness.”
The bluntness of his political calculus is shocking for anyone who believes justices should at least strive toward impartiality. Alito’s remarks are yet another stark reminder that, freed from accountability and ethical boundaries, the high court’s arch-conservatives are done pretending to be fair.
For the good of the country, it’s time for the Senate to subpoena Alito and expose his corruption for the whole country to see.
“I agree with you, I agree with you,” Alito says in response to Lauren Windsor, a liberal journalist who posed as a conservative at a recent Supreme Court Historical Society event, after she said that the justices should continue fighting to “return our country to a place of godliness.” That was a bridge too far for Chief Justice John Roberts, who flatly rejected Windsor’s claim that it was the Supreme Court’s job to enforce Christian morality. Justice Roberts, you might want to call your office.
It’s one thing for Americans to assume that Alito, a George W. Bush appointee beloved by the GOP for his willingness to push the party line, was using the Supreme Court to score points for his team. It’s another to hear Alito confirm it without a speck of self-awareness or concern for how it further damages dwindling public faith in the court.
Alito’s party-over-everything understanding of the world explains why he so easily abandoned the conservative hobby horse of constitutional “originalism” when the opportunity arrived to finally overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. At the time, legal experts criticized Alito’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson for disregarding over 150 years of precedent and throwing the court into uncharted legal waters. As it turns out, Alito was just being true to himself — and his belief that his role as a justice is to tip the scales of justice toward “godly” conservatives.
But what about the majority of Americans who don’t identify with conservatism? Alito casually dismisses those 150-million-plus people as the “other side.” To Alito, those Americans are someone else’s problem, and he seems to have no interest in giving their cases or their arguments a fair hearing.
Our elected leaders may feign shock when Alito’s next round of indefensible decisions arrives, but the American people know better. They’ve long since come to expect the kind of naked partisanship Alito so proudly displayed in his leaked conversation. Instead of performative outrage, the Senate should take real steps to hold Alito accountable for his unprecedented politicization of the judiciary.
At minimum, that means taking the weighty step of subpoenaing Alito to testify before a Senate hearing. That action would be unprecedented — but so is Alito’s incredible disregard for even the illusion of judicial fairness. From his flags to his ideology, Samuel Alito has time and again thumbed his nose at the ethical standards that ensure our Supreme Court is viewed with legitimacy and credibility by the American people. It’s past time he answered for those attacks under oath.
Alito’s candid admission that he views the Supreme Court as a political battlefield between Democrats and Republicans instead of as a forum for crafting coherent legal precedent explains a lot about why the court is now one of the least-trusted institutions in the country. Fewer Americans than ever believe the Supreme Court is making decisions based on the law, and that corrosion of our institutions is contagious. After Alito’s latest outrage, no one can argue that the court’s biggest critics are just imagining things.
Alito seems to feel it is just fine to sacrifice the legitimacy of the court to be the Republican Party’s enforcer on the federal bench. That doesn’t mean the American people have to accept it — and neither should the elected leaders who represent us. Requiring Alito to explain himself under oath is the only way for our government to begin the long and difficult process of restoring public trust in the Supreme Court. Without accountability, trust in the court may well be lost forever.
The American people deserve better.
Max Burns is a veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies.