Justice Alito Challenges Proposed Supreme Court Ethics Legislation in Wall Street Journal Interview

Last week, Democrats pushed a Supreme Court ethics legislation through a Senate committee, though its prospects in the full Senate remain uncertain. This comes after Justice Samuel Alito gave an interview to two Wall Street Journal writers, including one who is an attorney representing plaintiffs in a key case before the Supreme Court.

The case in question is Moore v. U.S., which asks the Supreme Court to upend the country’s tax system and potentially foreclose a wealth tax of the sort some Democrats have championed in recent years. The interview was conducted by attorney David B. Rivkin Jr. and a Wall Street Journal opinion editor, and was published on the Wall Street Journal’s opinion page.

Justice Alito spoke out against the proposed legislation, saying that Congress lacks the power to impose a code of ethics on the Supreme Court. He stated that “No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court—period.” The interview was conducted in New York in early July, and the account of it was published on Friday.

The proposed legislation has been met with opposition from Justice Alito, who is the first member of the court to take a public stand against it. It remains to be seen whether the bill will pass in the full Senate, and if so, how it will be received by the Supreme Court.