US Supreme Court's Roberts rebuffs senators' call for Alito meeting

[May 31, 2024]  By Andrew Chung

(Reuters) -U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts on Thursday rejected a request by two Democratic senators for a meeting to urge him to take steps to ensure that fellow Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito recuses himself from pending cases related to the 2020 election.

Alito has been under scrutiny following reports that flags associated with former President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss flew outside two of the justice's homes.

Senators Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse had asked that Alito not take part in two cases - one involving Trump's bid for immunity from prosecution and another involving an obstruction charge against a Trump supporter who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Durbin, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Whitehouse, a committee member, sent a May 23 letter to Roberts after New York Times reports that an inverted U.S. flag flew outside Alito's Virginia home and a flag bearing the slogan "Appeal to Heaven" flew at Alito's New Jersey vacation home.

Alito created "reasonable doubt as to his impartiality," requiring recusal, by permitting the display of these flags, the senators wrote. Some Trump supporters carried such flags during the Capitol attack. The flags have become associated with the "Stop the Steal" movement based on Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud.

Roberts, in a letter to the senators, said that sitting chief justices meet with lawmakers only on "rare occasions."

"Separation of powers concerns and the importance of preserving judicial independence counsel against such appearances," Roberts wrote.

Roberts added, "Moreover, the format proposed - a meeting with leaders of only one party who have expressed an interest in matters currently pending before the court - simply underscores that participating in such a meeting would be inadvisable."

A spokesperson for Durbin said Roberts was wrong to invoke judicial independence as a reason to reject a meeting.

"To the contrary, Chair Durbin's only interest - as it has been since he first raised this issue with the chief justice 12 years ago - is restoring the credibility of the court in the eyes of the American people," the spokesperson added.

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts poses during a group portrait at the Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., October 7, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Alito on Wednesday, in separate letters to Democratic lawmakers including Durbin and Whitehouse, rejected calls to step aside in the cases. Alito wrote that the flag incidents did not meet the conditions for recusal adopted by the justices last year, and that he therefore had an "obligation to sit."

Alito, a member of the court's 6-3 conservative majority, told the lawmakers that the flags at issue were flown by his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, and that he had no involvement. Alito said she was exercising her right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution.

"She makes her own decisions, and I have always respected her right to do so," Alito wrote.

Trump, the Republican candidate challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election, on Wednesday praised Alito's decision.

Some critics said Alito's response underscored the lack of a built-in enforcement mechanism in the Supreme Court's code of conduct adopted last year following revelations of undisclosed luxury trips and hobnobbing with wealthy benefactors by some of the justices that raised questions about their ethics standards.

Justices decide for themselves whether to step aside from cases.

The two cases at issue already have been argued before the court, with rulings expected by the end of June.

Trump has made a claim of presidential immunity from prosecution on federal criminal charges relating to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. The other case is relevant to Trump because he faces the same charge being contested by a Pennsylvania man who was involved in the Jan. 6 riot.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Additional reporting by John Kruzel in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham and Scott Malone)

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