Samuel Alito did not declare gifts from billionaire with case before US supreme court

Samuel Alito defended his actions in the Wall Street Journal, saying that the seat on the plane ‘would otherwise have been vacant’. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

The US supreme court justice Samuel Alito accepted a seat on a private plane owned by the conservative billionaire Paul Singer, flying to Alaska for a luxury fishing trip hosted by another rightwing businessman, then did not declare such gifts or recuse himself when Singer had business before the court.

The latest blockbuster report on the tangled subject of supreme court ethics came, again, from ProPublica. The non-profit newsroom has already detailed the close relationship between another hardline justice, Clarence Thomas, and the conservative billionaire Harlan Crow.