Democratic lawmakers are escalating their attacks on Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in the wake of secret recordings that were obtained last week of the justice agreeing that America should return “to a place of godliness.”
Experts say that the legacy media and the Left’s ongoing campaign to target conservative justices is a concerted effort to delegitimize the country’s highest court ahead of future rulings that could potentially work against the Democratic Party’s political agenda.
On Monday, reports surfaced of a secret recording produced by left-wing filmmaker Lauren Windsor in which she posed as a conservative while attending a Supreme Court Historical Society dinner on June 3. In an exchange with Alito, Windsor stated, “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 responded, “I agree with you. I agree with you.”
Democrats on the Hill immediately seized on the exchange to paint Alito as an “extremist.”
“Alito is an extremist who is out of touch with mainstream America,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., remarked. “His rising power on the Supreme Court is a threat to our democracy.” She went on to claim that the recording “undermines whatever last shreds of credibility the Supreme Court might have had.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote on X, “Alito is becoming a loose cannon turned on the Court itself. He mocks ethics.”
Conservative commentators were quick to respond that the story was unremarkable. “Media war on Alito continues,” observed Fox News host Mark Levin on X. “This time his offense, belief in God.”
The episode comes on the heels of another flap that arose in legacy media outlets that seized on flags previously flown on property belonging to Alito, which purported to link the Supreme Court justice to far-right extremists. It was later revealed that The Washington Post had passed on publishing the episode in 2021 because it had to do with Alito’s wife Martha-Ann and “a dispute with her neighbors.” But that didn’t stop The New York Times from publishing a supposed scoop of the story last month.
The developing pattern of Democratic lawmakers making accusations of corruption against sitting Supreme Court justices, combined with a series of news stories targeting conservatives on the high court, has caused experts to point to a deeper agenda that is occurring.
“I think for believers, it’s important [that when] you see news stories, we need to pause and not just breeze through every series of titles we see, especially when they are all almost virtually the same thing,” Family Research Council Vice President Travis Weber contended during Tuesday’s “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” “It’s almost like you’re being told something happened and it’s made out to be the whole story. That’s also a sign that we need to look deeper.”
Weber, who serves as Family Research Council’s vice president for policy and government affairs, continued, “[W]hy is Justice Alito, Justice Thomas, why are they the subject of so much of this? Well, what’s the state of the federal government with regard to radical progressives being able to accomplish their agenda? What’s standing in their way? [I]t’s not the Senate. … It’s not the presidency. It’s the Supreme Court. That’s a fact.”
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins concurred. “We’ve seen that they’ve been on these campaigns of dark money, and they’ve been campaigning around the courts,” he pointed out. “Remember Chuck Schumer [D-N.Y.], out there in front of the court when [Neil] Gorsuch was nominated, saying that the court was ‘sowing to the wind and they were going to reap the whirlwind.’”
Perkins also highlighted that Alito “is not going to recuse himself” of future cases because of negative media stories. “But by all this noise, all these allegations, it would be very difficult for the Chief Justice [John Roberts] to turn to him to write an opinion.”
Weber went on to note the seemingly planned nature of the media stories appearing in current news cycles. “These smears are trickling out at certain times. We have to remember [that] the Dobbs decision draft was leaked as well. We don’t know what is making its way out of the court that shouldn’t be right now. We have to remember the context in which this is being placed. There are forces that do not want to see conservative and God honoring policies and principles upheld.”
Perkins agreed, further pointing out that “part of what’s driving this latest round [of stories] is the fact that [former President] Donald Trump may have a case before the Supreme Court.”
“Absolutely,” Weber responded. “The timing of trying to delegitimize Justice Alito or anyone else who would have a hand in that—how can we avoid that conclusion? When you look at what happened to President Trump up in New York, you have to understand these things are … not just happening in a vacuum. It’s happening in the context of forces at work.”
Weber concluded by urging believers to continue working to bring about God’s kingdom on earth despite media stories that disparage that work.
We need to remember that we are God’s representatives to minister the Lord Jesus Christ here on earth. … [L]iving as Christ to those around us means standing for the things God stands for, praying for them, asking the Lord to intercede and work. … [T]hey may write us off, but we’re commanded by the Lord to minister his presence to those around us.
