John,

Earlier this year, CREW brought a case to the Supreme Court representing Colorado Republican and unaffiliated voters who were asking for the enforcement of Donald Trump's disqualification under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution for engaging in insurrection.

I tried hard to maintain my faith that even if this Supreme Court might sometimes be more political than I would like, they were ultimately acting in good faith and were committed to democracy. But that’s just become harder and harder to believe.

Recent revelations about Justice Alito suggest that not only is the Court shirking its duty to our democracy, but that there is actual bias there.

We now know that Alito’s houses flew two different flags associated with the efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Yet he has not recused himself from cases related to January 6th cases or the 2020 election that have come before the Supreme Court—including CREW’s.

That appears to be a direct violation of the Court’s code of conduct and the recusal requirements in federal law–not to mention the commitments Alito made during his confirmation hearing.

I remember Justice Alito’s confirmation hearing because I was in the room. I worked at the time on the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee—and part of the job was vetting judicial candidates like Alito and preparing senators to ask hard but important questions of nominees. Alito made a lot of promises to abide by the highest ethics standards, above and beyond what the law required, particularly as to recusal, that he’s simply violating now.

John, Justice Alito is making his own decision about his own recusal, and he’s going back on his own word. That’s a problem for the integrity of the Court and for our democracy. We need Alito to make the right call for ethics and democracy, and we need an enforceable code of conduct that will push recalcitrant justices like him to follow the rules.

Our job at CREW is fighting day in and day out to defend our democracy – and that means holding our leaders accountable, including Supreme Court justices. But that’s a tough task, and we can’t do it without supporters nationwide standing behind us.

Thanks for your generous support,

Noah Bookbinder
President
CREW