Alito’s denial of judicial bias is a joke on the American people

I don’t think of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito as a particularly funny guy. But his recent interview with CBS News legal correspondent Jan Crawford made me laugh out loud.

“We are not part of any political movement, and we are not attempting to further any political agenda,” Alito said.

Alito’s claim is hilarious in an absurdist deadpan sort of way. But the laughter it provokes is not happy laughter. It’s the kind of grunt that pops out of your mouth when you hear President Trump spout some ridiculous thing. It’s preposterous that he is our president, and yet there he is.

When it comes to Alito’s claim, the history is clear. The right-wing Supreme Court majority — Alito and Clarence Thomas hold down its right-most edge — was built explicitly to further a political agenda.

The Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation and the whole massive right-wing infrastructure built over the past 50 years is the fruit of a long-term campaign by corporations, foundations and wealthy individuals to amass enough political and legal power to reverse a century of progressive advances .

Movement leaders set out to overturn decades of precedent and return the country to a pre-New Deal, pre- Civil Rights Act version of reality. A reality in which the federal government doesn’t have much power to interfere with corporations doing whatever they want to workers or the environment, the bargaining and political power of worker unions has been brutally undermined and the rights of historically marginalized communities are ignored.

When Trump was elected for the first time, right-wing activists were giddy that his judicial nominees would give them the power to “ fundamentally change America .”

And that was on top of what court conservatives, including Alito, had already done to democracy in decisions like Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which made it virtually impossible to protect our elections from people and corporations with unlimited wealth, and Shelby County v. Holder , which started the court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act .

When President Barack Obama criticized the Citizens United decision during his 2010 State of the Union speech , warning that it would open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, “to spend without limit in our elections,” Alito shook his head and mouthed , “Not true.” History has proven that Obama was right. and the impact of Citizens United and other rulings impairing efforts to regulate money flowing into elections has been enormous.

Speaking of political agendas, Alito wrote the 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade . He has also been central to the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act , a gift to Republican politicians eager to increase their power by gerrymandering away political representation for Black and brown voters. Earlier this year, Alito authored the opinion in Louisiana v. Callais , which the dissenting justices noted had made a key provision of the Voting Rights Act “ all but a dead letter .”

Alito has been a long-time advocate for the “unitary executive” — a right-wing theory for virtually unchecked presidential power. This Supreme Court majority has made it our reality , allowing Trump to turn independent agencies into instruments of his personal and political vendettas.

Alito has spoken frequently at events for the Federalist Society and other right-wing groups, brushing aside ethical concerns about “ judicial influence buying ” raised by public interest organizations.

There is really no question that right-wing politicians and activists view the federal courts as an instrument of their political agenda.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) became a hero to the hard right when, as Senate majority leader, he refused to allow the Senate to even consider President Barack Obama’s nomination to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Antonin Scalia.

After Trump’s first election, McConnell and other right-wing operatives openly gloated about how many judicial vacancies Trump would be able to fill because McConnell and Senate Republicans obstructed and slow-walked judicial nominees during the last two years of Obama’s presidency. Republican senators have done the opposite for Trump, rushing to approve even his least qualified and most nakedly partisan nominees for lifetime federal judgeships.

Trump has complained harshly when the court — but not Alito — has resisted a few of his most blatantly unconstitutional moves. Trump has only praise for Alito, who has been a reliable vote and a rhetorical mouthpiece for the administration’s positions.

Alito can say it’s “ offensive ” to suggest that he’s the MAGA movement’s man on the court. But it would be a joke to pretend otherwise.

That’s one of many good reasons voters should give Democrats a Senate majority in these midterm elections. If Republicans maintain their control of the Senate, President Trump will continue to fill the courts with judges who make Americans’ lives less affordable and more subject to the authoritarian impulses of the president and his corporate and big tech backers.

And he’ll be sure to fill any Supreme Court vacancies with people like Alito, who he can count on to let him get away with anything.

Svante Myrick is president of People For the American Way .