In recent weeks, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has been vocal in his criticism of Democrats in Congress who are attempting to introduce legislation that would limit the powers of the court.
On July 20th, Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse presented the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act (SCERT) of 2023 to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The proposal has been met with strong opposition from Republicans due to its potential constitutional implications.
If passed into law, the SCERT Act would implement a code of ethics for all Supreme Court justices as well as mandatory recusal requirements for certain cases.
Furthermore, it would require Justices to disclose any gifts or income information they receive along with details about paid travel expenses.
It also allows members of the public to file complaints against individual justices and motions requesting their removal from specific cases.
Justice Alito responded quickly to Sen. Whitehouse’s proposal by speaking out against it during an interview with The Wall Street Journal on July 30th.
He argued that Congress does not have authority over the Supreme Court based on Article III Section 1 of the Constitution which states “the judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court” and no other branch can arbitrate disputes regarding this statement-including even lower courts-which leads only one conclusion: The Supreme Court must decide matters regarding itself without intervention from other branches of government.
He further commented on how he believes people should behave when faced with political attacks such as these: “the traditional idea about how judges and justices should behave is they should be mute”.
However, since nobody else is doing this work he feels compelled to defend himself because he believes someone needs to do so.
