SCOTUS Slammed After ‘Private’ Comments are Leaked

Conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is facing a new firestorm of controversy over audio recordings that some legal analysts claim reveal his lack of impartiality.

Alito has recently been facing allegations of bias following reports that flags associated with the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” movement and Christian nationalism were spotted flying at two of his residences.

On Monday, Rolling Stone published candid audio of Alito that was recorded “undercover” by liberal documentary filmmaker Lauren Windsor, posing as a conservative, while attending the Supreme Court Historical Society dinner on June 3.

Alito can be heard agreeing with Windsor that “winning” will end the liberal-conservative U.S. ideological divide and endorsing a call to “return our country to a place of godliness” in the recordings, which were shared to Windsor’s account on X, formerly Twitter.

“One side or the other is going to win,” Alito says. “I mean, there can be a way of working, a way of living together peacefully, but it’s difficult … Because there are differences on fundamental things that really can’t be compromised. They really can’t be compromised. So it’s not like you are going to split the difference.”

Lawyers and legal analysts reacted to the recordings on social media, arguing that Alito’s bias had been exposed, with several suggesting that he was likely softening his remarks because he was speaking with a stranger.

“If Justice Alito is making comments like this to a random person at a get-together, what is he saying to his close confidants?” former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance wrote on X. “How is this impartial justice, especially when his votes/rationale on cases are considered?”

“@JoyceWhiteVance has this just right,” wrote Harvard Law School professor emeritus Laurence Tribe. “Alito’s comments aren’t disqualifying in themselves—but they contribute to breaking this tired camel’s already weakened back. Overstating the point undermines its strength.”

“Alito caught on tape admitting he will not be impartial. When are the hearings @SenatorDurbin?” human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid wrote. “A reminder once more SCOTUS has (almost) never upheld justice in America, but largely been the obstacle to justice. The receipts back it up throughout history.”

Conservative lawyer George Conway compared Alito’s remarks to a recording of Chief Justice John Roberts that Windsor took at the same event. Roberts rejected Windsor’s suggestion that it was his job to put the country on “a moral path” and would not agree that the U.S. was “a Christian nation.”

“The contrast between Alito’s responses and Roberts’s speaks volumes,” Conway wrote. “Oh my.”

Newsweek reached out for comment to a Supreme Court spokesperson via email on Monday evening.

The New York Times reported last month that an upside-down American flag was flown outside Alito’s Virginia home following former President Donald Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election. At the time, the flag was associated with evidence-free claims that the election was “stolen” from Trump by massive voter fraud.

A short time later, the newspaper published photos showing an “Appeal to Heaven” flag flying at Alito’s Long Beach Island, New Jersey, vacation home in July and September 2023. The flag is a popular symbol among Christian nationalists.

Alito has refused calls to recuse himself from cases involving Trump or the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack, drawing praise from the former president for his “courage.” The justice claims that his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, was responsible for raising both of the flags.

While Alito has yet to weigh in on the recent recordings, he did previously argue that any “reasonable person who is not motivated by political or ideological considerations” would agree that he is not too biased to rule on matters involving Trump.