Staff Reports
According to experts, Democratic lawmakers and left-leaning organizations urging Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself from crucial cases due to alleged ethics breaches constitute a "coordinated endeavor" aimed at undermining the legitimacy of the Supreme Court. These experts note that the frequency of attacks on conservative justices intensifies with each successive year.
According to a report by The New York Times, the "Appeal to Heaven" flag, prominently used by Patriot forces, including George Washington, during the Revolutionary War, was displayed at Alito's residence last year. Democrats expressed outrage, asserting it was also a significant symbol during the January 6 riot at the Capitol. This incident marked the second occasion in as many weeks that the flags at the justice's residence became a matter of controversy.
The Left comes for Alito: Recusal calls are a ‘coordinated’ campaign against Supreme Court justice https://t.co/hrezdLhuJ3 pic.twitter.com/unAlNXuTJb
— JCN (@judicialnetwork) May 31, 2024
In the aftermath of the flag controversy, congressional Democrats and activist groups are intensifying their efforts to exert pressure on Alito. Despite facing opposition from legal experts and voices aligned with the Right, Democrats and left-leaning organizations have consistently sought to raise concerns about certain Republican-appointed justices on the Supreme Court throughout Joe Biden’s presidency. They have pursued this strategy by attacking their ethics.
“The Left has been constantly attacking the court since at least March 2020 when Sen. [Chuck] Schumer stood in front of the court during an oral argument on an abortion case and directly threatened Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh on their vote,” said Mark Paoletta, ex-general counsel for Trump’s Office of Management and Budget and a close friend of Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginni.
Paoletta specifically remembered a recurring trend over the past three years of leaks or reports that heighten scrutiny on the Supreme Court “in the springtime as the court nears the end of the term and big decisions will be handed down.”
Paoletta mentioned that the left-wing groups amplifying the attacks on conservative justices' ethics have a specific agenda. “Short term, it’s to intimidate the conservative justices and try to force a baseless recusal or to have them trim their sails on an opinion and, longer term, to undermine the court’s legitimacy and pack the court,” Paoletta said, likening Democrats’ calls to reduce the number of justices deciding a case to an inverse court-packing effort.
In May 2022, there was the leak of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that signaled the imminent overturning of Roe v. Wade, a leak that has remained unsolved despite its damaging impact on the institution. Last year, ProPublica launched a dedicated series in the spring questioning Thomas’s ethics, specifically over gifts of vacations that billionaire Harlan Crow gave to Thomas, just before the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action.
Legal scholars affirm that neither the Code of Conduct for United States Judges nor the ethics code of the Supreme Court necessitates Alito's recusal from the case. While these codes were established to ensure justices disclose any gifts received from external sources, they lack a mandatory enforcement mechanism.
Cases that Democrats like Durbin and Whitehouse believe Alito should abstain from are crucial in the current term of the Supreme Court, with decisions pending. Among them is Trump v. United States, querying whether Trump holds immunity from prosecution regarding the 2020 election inquiry led by special counsel Jack Smith. The second case concerns whether numerous defendants from the January 6 riot were erroneously charged under an established obstruction statute during the brief interruption of Biden’s electoral victory certification due to the riot.
In response to a question about allegations of coordinated campaigning against the high court, a spokesperson from ProPublica, “Our reporter posted a newsworthy and accurate photo. We stand by our previous reporting about Leonard Leo’s connections to Justice Alito.”
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans have largely disregarded the matter concerning Alito.
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) stated that Durbin’s concerns are akin to "frivolous, flag-related conspiracy theories." Lee emphasized that waving flags does not warrant Justice Alito's recusal, noting that the senator has failed to provide any legal basis for his argument. He further described this as part of a coordinated endeavor by Democrats to pressure the Supreme Court into ruling according to their preferences.
