Justice Alito sullies integrity of the U.S. Supreme Court
He accepted the gift of a luxury fishing trip with a billionaire whose hedge fund has repeatedly had business before the court and failed to disclose it.
The Code of Conduct says justices “should comply” with regulations that prohibit judicial officers from accepting gifts “from anyone who is seeking official action from or doing business with the court” and require the disclosure of gifts.
He is credibly suspected of leaking to conservative activists his ruling in 2014’s Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, exempting private companies from regulations in the case of religious objections.
Another of his rulings, in 2022’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization also was leaked.
While Alito’s behavior clearly violates the court’s Code of Conduct, as I noted in November the code lacks any enforcement mechanism.
Clarence Thomas FINALLY puts in his all-expense paid trips with Harlan Crowe
Also Judge Took All-Expense Paid Luxury Retreat Before Anti-Masker Opinion
Judge Kathryn Mizelle learned a lot while clerking for Clarence Thomas, including, apparently, her mentor’s fondness for taking luxury gifts from dark money outlets with vested interests in the cases you’re deciding.
The same week we learned that Thomas hoovered up millions in gifts, it turns out his erstwhile clerk — appointed to the bench as a mere Biglaw associate only a year removed from her own clerkship — accepted a cushy trip to The Greenbrier from a Koch-funded conservative group to learn about a particularly goofy niche form of statutory originalism. And then wouldn’t you know it… weeks later she strikes down the federal mask mandate — a fight Koch was funding as an anti-masker — using this same goofy niche form of statutory originalism.
