Let me stipulate: I do not approve of pseudo-journalistic stings that surreptitiously record people, often public figures, in the moment of gotcha. It is unethical if the trapper is the right one Project Veritas or the leftist “advocacy journalist” who blasted Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and his wife, Martha-Ann, just last week.
Not yet…. The rightmost justice of the court should not answer in the unguarded and inappropriate way that he did when Lauren Windsormasquerading as a fellow Catholic conservative, approaching people at the annual black-tie gala for the Supreme Court Historical Society.
Opinion columnist
Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes brings a critical eye to the national political scene. He has decades of experience in the White House and Congress.
No one made him agree, unequivocally, that the nation should return to its “place of divinity,” or indeed be uncompromising with the left, as if he were a minister or a politician, not an impartial jurist.
Embarrassed by Windsor’s record for Alito, the audio made public Monday doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know: The justice showed bad judgment and had a right-wing, theocratic bias that should have disqualified him but in fact he enjoyed life.
But surprisingly, Alito walks right into the trap just when you think he’s going to be careful, amid the ongoing turmoil. disclosure the flag favored by pro-rebellion, pro-Trump and pro-Christian nationalist groups flew in Alitos’ Virginia and New Jersey homes.
Lest anyone doubt that he could avoid the Windsor trap, he also persuaded conservative Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. in the same elite event, and the answer with Alito’s lackluster judicial temperament – unfairly, rejecting Windsor’s main claim.
However, Roberts got no applause. The chief justice was presiding over a court he had tolerated for far too long gift-griftingby Justice Clarence Thomas especially and Alito too. Lately he considered it two judges ‘refused to resign himself from the decision on the criminal liability of Donald Trump, despite the obvious conflict of interest due to the actions of his pro-Trump spouse.
The new record almost certainly won’t change Alito’s refusal to resign. Roberts, meanwhile, claims to be the power over Thomas and Alito – justice must decide whether they should recuse from the case – as Thomas and Alito professes with his partisan wife. I didn’t buy it.
The court, Alito and Roberts all declined to comment on the record disclosed in Rolling Stone. At Supreme Court Historical Societywho hosted the gala, published a statement that appeared to confirm the authenticity of the audio: “We condemn the secret recording of the judges at the event, which is inconsistent with the whole spirit of the evening.”
Ah, yes, the spirit of the evening. It will be an off-the-record coziness between judges and wealthy community donors, many of whom argue before the court or run businesses affected by the court’s decision. Society has in the news previous. In 2022 former antiabortion leader disclosed that for years he ‘d pressed rich supporters to join and contribute to it, to gain social access to justice, including Alito and his wife.
Windsor always has full access. When he suggested to Alito that the right should not negotiate with the left, which concurred at some length. “One side or the other will win,” he said, adding, “There is a way of working, a way of living together in peace. But it’s difficult, you know, because there are fundamental differences that are absolutely irreconcilable.
As he continued, suggesting that people “who believe in God” should win the “moral argument” and “return our country to a holy place,” Alito quickly agreed: “Oh, I agree with you, I agree with you.”
Contrast that with Roberts. He rejected Windsor’s claim that the court should lead the country down a “moral path”: “It’s for the people we elect.” And when he persisted, saying, “We live in a Christian country,” Roberts countered: “I know a lot of Jewish and Muslim friends who would say no. And it’s not our job. Our job is to decide the best case.”
I’ll pass on the garrulous Martha-Ann Alito almost six minutes of chat with Windsor – missus no justice – but for two points. First, he showed his wife hostility to gay rights: “I have to look for the lagoon in the Pride flag for the next month,” he whisped. Which turns to the second point: Ms. Alito said she told her husband she would fly the anti-gay flag in response “when you’re free of this nonsense.”
So, general service on the nation’s highest court is “nonsense.” I took his comments as confirmation that Alito, 74, is itching to step down if Trump wins the election. It’s just that one more reason to vote to the disgraced former president: We do not want a younger version of Alito to replace him for decades to come.
The partisans “smell” in the super-majority-conservative court that warned liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor at the end of 2021 continues to grow rancid. Last year, when Windsor also admitted to Alito in secret, she told him be blamed media for having “really eroded trust in the court” by negative coverage.
Once again, justice refers to the punishment of evil. Messenger is not a problem. He is.
@jackiekcalmes
