'Utterly without ethics:' Court watchers skewer Justice Alito for taking Trump call
A cascade of shade shrouded the rare phone call between Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and President-elect Donald Trump as legal analysts and political observers took to social media to sound off on the conversation.
Reactions swiftly followed reports that the incoming president and sitting Supreme Court justice spoke by phone just a day before Trump asked the high court to block his criminal sentencing in the New York hush-money case, asserting he is protected by the court’s blockbuster presidential immunity ruling last summer.
Both faced unfavorable feedback.
“No way should Alito ever have taken this call,” former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) posted to his X account. “No way, no how. Doesn’t matter what they spoke about. He should not have taken the call. Period. He must recuse himself.”
“This is, um, extremely unusual behavior by a justice, and it’s very unclear to me why Trump needed Alito to vouch for this guy in the first place,” Slate legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern told his followers on Bluesky. “Out of all the people who could attest to his character, it had to be Alito? Right now?”
“Justice Alito takes call from Trump, right as Trump's lawyers sought stay to stop Trump's criminal sentencing in NYC,” lawyer and MSNBC legal commentator Tristan Snell wrote on X. “Alito claims it was to help a former clerk get a job. Doesn't matter. Federal law requires Alito now be DISQUALIFIED from the Trump stay petition.”
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Other users were quick to point out – in ridiculing fashion – that Alito has faced ethical questions as well as concerns of impartiality over his rulings involving Trump. The justice told ABC News that the incoming president made no mention of the emergency request his attorneys filed with the court Wednesday morning.
“Sam Alito, just a humble jurist with no personal politics,” Princeton University history professor Kevin M. Kruse posted on Bluesky.
Off Message co-host Brian Beutler quipped on Bluesky: “Fortunately Alito is a man of pristine character and would never lie about these matters.”
“Sam Alito is utterly without ethics and legitimacy. He must be ousted. Pass it on,” political commentator Keith Olbermann wrote on his X account.