Courts

Samuel Alito Caught On Tape Saying All The Awful Things You Imagine He Says

Alito wants to 'return our country to a place of godliness.' Because of course he does.

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Samuel Alito frown

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Samuel Alito has been caught on tape. The worst Supreme Court justice you know attended the Supreme Court Historical Society’s annual dinner earlier this month and in attendance was documentary filmmaker Lauren Windsor. Windsor acted as if she were a religious conservative and asked probing questions and we get a stark look into the mind of the justice.

As reported by Rolling Stone, Windsor asks, “I don’t know that we can negotiate with the left in the way that needs to happen for the polarization to end. I think that it’s a matter of, like, winning.”

“I think you’re probably right,” Alito answers. “On one side or the other — one side or the other is going to win. I don’t know. I mean, there can be a way of working — a way of living together peacefully, but it’s difficult, you know, 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.”

And it doesn’t get better from there.

Windsor goes on to tell Alito: “People in this country who believe in God have got to keep fighting for that — to return our country to a place of godliness.”

“I agree with you. I agree with you,” replies Alito, who authored the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, which reversed five decades of settled law and ended a constitutional right to abortion.

Is this terrible? Of course. Is it surprising? Not at all. I read the Dobbs decision. And the Hobby Lobby one. And his Obergefell dissent. This is the man who HECKLED THE STATE OF THE UNION. And flies so many insurrectionist flags. No, he’s not trying to end the polarization of our nation.

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You can compare Alito’s scorched earth comments to the more reasonable comments by Chief Justice John Roberts who also spoke with Windsor.

Pressed on whether the court has an obligation to put the country on a more “moral path,” Roberts turns the tables on his questioner: “Would you want me to be in charge of putting the nation on a more moral path?” He argues instead: “That’s for people we elect. That’s not for lawyers.” Presented with the claim that America is a “Christian nation” and that the Supreme Court should be “guiding us in that path,” Roberts again disagrees, citing the perspectives of “Jewish and Muslim friends,” before asserting: “It’s not our job to do that. It’s our job to decide the cases the best we can.”

Alito writes like he’s salting the earth. He doesn’t believe in compromise or in the functional working of government. He’s in it to win it. And he writes prickly dissents in the hope he’ll be able to amass enough power and acolytes for those to be the future majority opinions. He’s writing to redefine what America is, and if he has to cite a 17th century witch-hunter to do so, well that’s not a problem for Alito.

Of course, more terrifying than what Windsor caught Alito saying is what Alito is planning on writing in his next majority opinion.

You can take a listen for yourself here.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].

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