Legal experts have said recently released secretly recorded audio of two Supreme Court justices is “not very revealing.”
Liberal filmmaker Lauren Windsor recorded Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito and his wife, Martha Ann Alito, without their permission, at a dinner on June 3. The audio was later published by Rolling Stone magazine.
Justice Windsor, a self-described conservative ally, has engaged in conversations with Justice Alito about their ideological differences, with the justice arguing in one recording that “we have fundamental and irreconcilable differences.”
Justice Windsor further urged the judges: “The people of this country who believe in God must continue to fight for it, to restore this country to sanctity.”
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From left, Justice Clarence Thomas, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justice Samuel Alito. (Javin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“I agree. I agree,” Alito replied to Windsor.
In response to Windsor’s claims, Roberts pushed back against the undercover filmmaker, saying “the idea that the courts are in the middle of a lot of unrest is nothing new.”
In an X post promoting the recording and the Rolling Stone article, Windsor directed followers to a link to donate to the Democratic political action committee Act Blue, saying, “Unfortunately, we can’t do this work for free. Please support our reporting with a donation.”
The recording sparked fierce protests against the court from Democrats in Congress, but legal experts said the recording showed nothing “to suggest a lack of impartiality.”
“I don’t think this is a big deal,” Georgia Law professor Anthony Michael Kreis wrote on X.
“Justice Alito is in his usual grumpy mood, blaming the media and wishing we could all get along except for basic values, which he naturally sees from a right-wing perspective, just like in his oral summary of the dissent from Obergefell,” he said.
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Justice Samuel Alito and his wife, Martha Ann, were secretly recorded by a liberal filmmaker. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
Cassandra Robertson, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, called Justice Alito’s comments “extremely banal.”
“I don’t see anything here that would suggest a lack of impartiality,” she said. “I don’t agree much with Justice Alito, but everything he says here seems pretty mundane to me, and I’m sure he would and has said the same thing in public.”
JCN President Carrie Severino called the recording “pure clickbait.”
“There is nothing impropriety whatsoever in this audio of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito. Most notably, in the secretly recorded audio, both Mr. Roberts and Mr. Alito say that it is not the Supreme Court’s job to set policy,” Severino said.
“And even in conversations with bad actors, they repeatedly stressed the limitations of the judiciary’s role. Other than that, the only thing that stands out here is the timing of this release – just before the end of his term,” she said.
“This is simply an extension of a desperate and coordinated campaign by the left, which has no control over the Supreme Court, to delegitimize it. As long as the Supreme Court majority is loyal to the Constitution and not the left’s political agenda, we can expect the baseless smears to continue,” she said.
Alito recently came under fire after The New York Times reported that he and his wife briefly flew an upside-down American flag at their home in 2021. The upside-down flag was a symbol of the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Alito said the flag was his wife’s doing and had nothing to do with January 6, but rather was a response to a dispute with a neighbor.
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A photo taken at the Supreme Court in Washington on February 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin, File)
The Times later reported that the Alitos’ waterfront home was flying an “Appeal to Heaven” flag, a historic naval flag still used at official events across the U.S. It was also the flag that was flown during the storming of the Capitol.
Senate Democrats have blasted the Supreme Court’s conservative justices in recent months, seeking to have them removed from key cases and filing ethics allegations that the justices have rejected or denied.
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In response to the leaked audio, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he would reintroduce a bill on Wednesday to overhaul Supreme Court ethics, even though the court has already clarified and updated its code of conduct.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-N.Y., said he would block Durbin’s efforts to pass the bill unanimously.
Fox News’ Julia Johnson contributed to this report.
