Senate Democrats Want Samuel Alito To Recuse In Any Cases Concerning SCOTUS Ethics

Maybe he'll write another op-ed in the WSJ about this request.

Samuel Alito frown

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.

We write regarding recent interviews that Justice Samuel Alito granted to the Wall Street Journal. By opining on the constitutionality of legislation under consideration by the U.S. Senate and agreeing to sit for interviews conducted in part by an attorney with a case currently pending before the Court, Justice Alito violated a key tenet of the Statement on Ethics Principles and Practices (hereinafter Statement on Ethics) to which all Supreme Court Justices purport to subscribe as well as the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges. We therefore urge you to take appropriate steps to ensure that Justice Alito will recuse himself in any future cases concerning legislation that regulates the Court, as well as Moore v. United States.

— An excerpt in a letter sent to Chief Justice John Roberts by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and nine of his Democratic Judiciary Committee colleagues, requesting that Justice Samuel Alito recuse himself from ruling in any cases concerning legislation on the Supreme Court justices’ ethics. Alito has been involved in several SCOTUS ethics controversies lately, and most recently claimed that “no provision in the Constitution gives [Congress] the authority to regulate the Supreme Court—period.”


Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.