A powerful Democrat senator has called Samuel Alito’s public expression of opposition to US supreme court ethics reform “unwise and unwelcome”, rejecting the conservative justice’s contention that Congress cannot implement such measures.
“Justice Alito is providing speculative public commentary on a bill that is still going through the legislative process,” said Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois and the chair of the Senate judiciary committee.
“Let’s be clear: Justice Alito is not the 101st member of the United States Senate. His intervention … is unwise and unwelcome,” he added in a statement.
Last week, Alito spoke to the Wall Street Journal, often an outlet for his views and complaints.
Discussing Washington scandals about rightwing justices taking gifts from donors with business before the court – most notably over Clarence Thomas’s links to Harlan Crow and Alito’s own fishing trip with Paul Singer – Alito said: “I marvel at all the nonsense that has been written about me in the last year.”
Saying he was defending himself because “nobody else is going to do this”, the George W Bush-appointed conservative, 73, said: “Congress did not create the supreme court.
“I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it. No provision in the constitution gives them the authority to regulate the supreme court – period.”
1. I stand by my takedown of this fake argument. This opin-terview is probably an effort to prop it back up. ‘No sale.’
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) July 31, 2023
2. Remember all the nominees saying to us it would be wrong to talk about issues that might come before the Court? So much for that.https://t.co/DYHrxglLXU
Durbin, who with Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island has sought to pilot ethics reform in response to the Thomas and Alito scandals, rejected Alito’s position.
“The ethical conduct of supreme court justices is a serious matter within this committee’s jurisdiction,” he said. “Ensuring ethical conduct by the justices is critical to the court’s legitimacy.”
The conservative chief justice, John Roberts, presides over a court dominated 6-3 by rightwingers who have recently delivered major rulings on abortion, gun control, LGBTQ+ rights, race-based affirmative action and other divisive issues.
Roberts has also resisted calls for ethics reform, or even testimony about ethics scandals.
Durbin continued: “The next time Justice Alito thinks about taking a private plane to a billionaire-funded fishing trip, he should have to ask more than ‘Can I take this empty seat?’ He should have to ask if doing so is consistent with his legally mandated ethical obligations.”
The push for ethics reform is unlikely to succeed. Senate Republicans oppose it and even if they did not, Republicans hold the House and are unlikely to take up the bill.
Nonetheless, Durbin continued: “I’ve said from the beginning of this inquiry: if the court does not act on ethics reform, Congress will. We advanced a bill to do so last month, and we will continue our push to ensure that the highest court in America does not have the lowest ethical standards.”
