Senior Senate Democrat wants to block Alito from writing majority opinions

Senator Richard Blumenthal wants to prohibit Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito from writing majority opinions in the wake of the release of a secret recording. 

Blumenthal is a senior Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee and said Chief Justice John Roberts should use his administrative powers to prevent Alito from writing any majority opinions and block him from presiding over a federal circuit court. 

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT: “He can say that Justice Alito no longer writes majority opinions. He can say that Justice Alito, no longer presides over a circuit, he can take action within the court that sends a message that Justice Alito is either going to recuse himself or he will be in effect sanctioned within the court.” 

Blumenthal made the comments in response to secret recordings that were released by liberal activist Lauren Windsor who posed as a pro-life conservative at an event with Alito. 

Lauren Windsor: People in this country who believe in god have got to keep fighting for that to return our country to a place of godliness. 

Alito: I agree with you. 

Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have been trying to get the Supreme Court to adopt an enforceable code of ethics and they’re renewing their efforts in the wake of this recording. 

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT: “I think we ought to begin to think about using funding As a potential means of persuading justices that they should adopt a code of ethics.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT: “Justice Alito, and Justice Thomas, are politicians in robes, they’re hacks in the judicial robes that they were and I think the Chief Justice has to take action, to force them to recuse themselves.” 

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-MO: “Oh, I disagree with all of that.”

Republicans on the committee are against legislation that would create new requirements for the high court, citing separation of powers. 

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-MO: “Some of them involve Trump, I think, some of them involve J6, some of them involve abortion.” Hawley told SAN. “It’s been a big turn for the court and this is an attempt to pre-butt all of those so they could say, ‘Oh see it’s illegitimate, it’s illegitimate’. My Democratic colleagues, if they don’t like the way an institution’s operating they say it’s illegitimate, if they like it, then they say oh, it’s sacrosanct.

The Alito recordings received a lot of attention and also included audio of Windsor’s interactions with Alito’s wife and Chief Justice John Roberts. 

Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX: “It’s a campaign of harassment against the Supreme Court in order to try to undermine public confidence.”

Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin is expected to ask unanimous consent to pass the Democratic led Supreme Court ethics reform bill Wednesday afternoon. 

But it will certainly be blocked by a Republican member. We will keep you updated on the Senate’s efforts to conduct oversight of the court on the Straight Arrow News app.