Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a prominent member of the Judiciary Committee, is raising questions about an interview Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito gave to The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page in July.
In that interview, the conservative justice argued that “no provision in the Constitution gives [Congress] the authority to regulate the Supreme Court — period.” He gave the interview shortly after the same publication allowed him to refute a then-unpublished ProPublica report that Alito accepted a luxury fishing trip to Alaska paid for by a prominent GOP donor.
“I note that the Supreme Court is the only place in all of government where issues of this nature have no place or means of investigation or resolution,” Whitehouse wrote in a letter to Alito released Monday. “So far, my questions regarding these events seem to have disappeared into a black hole of indifference.”
The latest written communication comes after Alito pointedly declined to recuse himself from pending cases involving former President Donald Trump and others related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Those recusal requests from Democrats came after multiple reports in The New York Times that Alito family residences displayed flags with links to the 2021 Capitol attack.
Whitehouse and the Judiciary panel’s chair, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), also unsuccessfully sought a meeting with Chief Justice John Roberts to discuss recent ethics concerns that have swirled around the nation’s highest court.
