As a general rule, Supreme Court Justices speak through their opinions. From time to time, Justices will be "interviewed"by friendly interlocutors during public events. The screened questions are usually softballs, and even then, the Justices tend to avoid saying anything newsworthy. In recent years, perhaps the biggest outlier was Justice Ginsburg. In 2016, she gave an interview with Adam Liptak of the New York Times. RBG made critical comments about then-candidate Trump. Ultimately Ginsburg sort-of apologized, but still faced calls to recuse in certain Trump-related cases. She would not recuse. RBG should have been grateful the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act (SCRET) was not in effect during this final years on the Court.
Speaking of the SCRET Act, on Friday, the Wall Street Journal published a "weekend interview" with Justice Alito. The Justice spoke with the Journal in early July. In April, Alito also spoke with the Journal for "four hours in two wide-ranging sessions" in his chambers. (I wrote about that interview here.) Perhaps the most significant aspect of the interview is that it happened at all. On the current Court, Justice Alito is the member most likely to talk to the press. And he had a lot to say–including about the SCRET Act, and his colleagues. Here are thirteen highlights.
First, Justice Alito repeated his refrain from April that the "bar" is not defending the Court against attack–indeed legal elites are leading the calls that the Court is "illegitimate."
