Charges against US Supreme Court Justice Alito: Conservative and open to gifts

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Was Paid for Travel by a Billionaire, Study Says He then negotiated his case.

Samuel Alito, a conservative on the US Supreme Court Photo: Erin Schaaf/Reuters

Berlin taz | Samuel Alito has been a member of the US Supreme Court since 2006. With Donald Trump as president, George W. The attorney general appointed by Bush was part of a conservative majority. A year earlier, he had ruled in Roe v. Wade since 1973.

Alito, now 73, is under a lot of pressure. Research site A publica The judge accused the Conservatives of not giving the public very expensive travel gifts from major donors and of not declaring themselves biased when cases that directly affected major donors came up in court.

Specifically, it concerns Alito’s fishing trip to Alaska in 2008, which cost several thousand dollars. The trip was organized by Leonard Leo. The 58-year-old chairman of the board of the Federalist Society, a conservative rights activist organization, is one of the most influential figures when it comes to appointing conservative justices in the United States. The Federalist Society continues to compile lists of the names of Donald Trump’s three nominees during his presidency. By doing so, he shifted the majority of the body to the right.

So this Leonard Leo had arranged the trip. According to ProPublica, it was primarily paid for by billionaire hedge fund manager and major conservative donor Paul Singer. He had Alito fly to Alaska on his private jet — a jet that would have cost the judge about $100,000 if he had chartered it himself, ProPublica reported. In one photo, both Alito and Singer pose with large salmon.

Hedge fund manager destroying states

Singer was an opponent of hedge funds and the Argentinian government under Nestor Kirchner that bought Argentine government bonds at ridiculous prices after Argentina’s great economic crisis in 2001.

He negotiated with all Argentine creditors around the world and waived most of the nominal amount of the debt – Singer insisted on full repayment and sought help from the US courts. A few years after the fishing trip with Alito, the case ended up in the Supreme Court: the justices voted 7-1 for Singer, a ruling that brought Argentina back to the brink of bankruptcy.

Pro Publica cites a whole series of legal and ethics experts who accuse Alito of double misconduct: On the one hand, he should have disclosed additional personal income or donations to the expensive trip and its financiers annually that he didn’t. On the other hand, he should have declared himself as a party at the time the Chamber heard the case involving Singer’s hedge fund as a party.

Before publishing the article, Pro Publica asked Alito detailed questions about the entire process. However, the organization did not receive a response directly, but in the form of an opinion signed by Alito The Wall Street JournalIn it, Alito defended himself against the allegations before they were published.

Alito did nothing wrong

On the one hand, Alito argues that he has no reason to object because he did not know that Paul Singer had anything to do with the hedge fund appearing in court. Apart from small talk during a 2008 fishing trip, he met Singer only a few times at large receptions.

He never discussed professional matters with the singer. Alito argues that rules on accepting and disclosing gifts, lodging and transportation to social events are prohibited or reported.

In fact, the Supreme Court has neither a code of conduct nor an oversight body. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said, “The nation’s highest court cannot have the lowest ethical standards. He and others are already developing a code for the court — and it’s even more urgent now.”

It is unclear at this time whether the matter will have personal consequences for Alito.