Senate Democrats urge recusals for US Supreme Court's Alito
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[August 04, 2023]
By Andrew Chung
(Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats on Thursday pushed back against
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's recent public comments rejecting
the ability of Congress to regulate the justices' ethics, urging his
recusal in any cases concerning legislation on the subject.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin and nine other Democrats on the
panel sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts asking him to "take
appropriate steps to ensure that Justice Alito will recuse himself in
any future cases concerning legislation that regulates the court."
Following revelations in recent months concerning undisclosed luxury
trips by private jet and real estate transactions by some of the
justices, the committee last month approved and sent to the full Senate
a Democratic-backed bill that would mandate a binding ethics code for
the nation's highest judicial body. Given Republican opposition, the
bill has little chance of becoming law.
Unlike other members of the federal judiciary, the Supreme Court's nine
life-tenured justices have no binding ethics code of conduct, though
they are subject to certain financial disclosure laws.
The letter from the senators addresses recent interviews of Alito
published in the Wall Street Journal's opinion section, including on
July 28 when he said Congress lacks the power to regulate the court.
"No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate
the Supreme Court - period," Alito, one of the six conservative justices
on the nine-member court, told the Journal.
"While this view is plainly incorrect," the senators said in the letter
to Roberts, "we are even more concerned that Justice Alito has publicly
prejudged a matter that could come before the court in the future."
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The letter also expressed concern that one of the two people who
interviewed Alito for the articles, David Rivkin Jr., is an attorney who
represents litigants in a tax case set to be argued during the court's
coming term, which begins in October.
"Mr. Rivkin's access to Justice Alito and efforts to help Justice Alito
air his personal grievances could cast doubt on Justice Alito's ability
to fairly discharge his duties in a case in which Mr. Rivkin represents
one of the parties," the senators stated.
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![](../images/080423PIX/news_u34.jpg)
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice
Samuel A. Alito Jr. poses during a group portrait at the Supreme
Court in Washington, U.S., October 7, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File
Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Aug/04/images/ads/current/chicagostreet_quarter_FAIR_2023.png)
Rivkin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alito took to the Journal's editorial page in June to preemptively
try to defend his failure to disclose a 2008 trip to Alaska on a
private jet belonging to a billionaire hedge fund manager whose
business interests have come before the court.
Details of Alito's trip were revealed by ProPublica, which also
exposed decades-long ties between conservative Justice Clarence
Thomas and billionaire Dallas businessman and Republican donor
Harlan Crow.
The court has drawn criticism from liberals and praise from
conservatives in its past two terms for sweeping decisions including
ending its recognition of a constitutional right to abortion,
expanding gun rights and rejecting affirmative action collegiate
admissions policies often used to increase Black and Hispanic
student enrollment.
A "Statement on Ethics Principles and Practices" that Roberts sent
to Durbin in April - a document the chief justice said all the
current justices follow - made clear that individual justices make
recusal decisions themselves.
"If the full court or any subset of the court were to review the
recusal decisions of individual Justices, it would create an
undesirable situation in which the court could affect the outcome of
a case by selecting who among its members may participate," the
statement said.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)
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