Senator Says Justice Alito ‘Stunningly Wrong’ About Congress’s Authority Over Supreme Court

'He should know that more than anyone else because his seat on the Supreme Court exists only because of an act passed by Congress'

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) speaks during a press conference following Senate Democrat policy luncheons at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on June 7, 2022. Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said on Sunday that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was “stunningly wrong” when he told The Wall Street Journal that Congress did not have the authority to regulate the Supreme Court.

“First of all, it’s just stunningly wrong. And he should know that more than anyone else because his seat on the Supreme Court exists only because of an act passed by Congress. It is Congress that establishes the number of justices on the Supreme Court. It is Congress that has passed in the past requirements for justices to disclose certain information,” Mr. Murphy said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“It is just wrong on the facts to say that Congress doesn’t have anything to do with the rules guiding the Supreme Court. In fact, from the very beginning, Congress has set those rules.”

The power play between Congress and the Supreme Court ramped up toward the end of the court’s last session, as highly anticipated rulings were to come down on issues around affirmative action, freedom of speech, and student loan debt cancellation.

Investigations by left-wing news outlets into some of the justices’ financial dealings were revealed ahead of the one-year anniversary of the court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, and the high court, which usually garners less attention than the legislative and executive branches, was suddenly in the spotlight.

This prompted Democrat lawmakers to call for an ethics reform in the court, threatening legislation if the court did not create satisfactory rules within a set time frame.

The ethics legislation recently passed along party lines in the Senate, with pushback from Republicans who say Democrats are retaliating against the conservative-majority court for rulings they don’t like.

Justice Alito was the first of the justices to respond in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal.

‘Controversial View’

Justice Alito’s remarks on Congress’s actions have since been widely quoted.

“I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it,” Justice Alito said. “No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court—period.”

The Democrat lawmakers who are pushing the ethics legislation disagree. The Constitution states that the “Supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.” Supporters of legislation have taken this to mean that Congress can in fact regulate the Supreme Court.

Justice Alito said that, traditionally, judges and justices “should be mute” in the face of such political battles, and leave it to others to defend them

“But that’s just not happening. And so at a certain point I’ve said to myself, nobody else is going to do this, so I have to defend myself,” he said.

“I marvel at all the nonsense that has been written about me in the last year.”

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito speaks at Georgetown University in Washington on Feb. 23, 2016. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

In the four-hour interview, he discussed his colleagues’ approach to cases, such as Justice Clarence Thomas giving less weight to precedent and Justice Neil Gorsuch being “not a consequentialist.”

“We don’t always line up 6-3, 5-4, the way some people tend to think,” Justice Alito said. “If you look at all the cases, there are cases where the lineup is unusual.” For instance, conservatives were surprised at the court’s rulings on some of the redistricting cases, which Republicans saw as a loss.

Of his own approach, he said, “I reject the idea that a statute should be interpreted simply by looking up the words in the dictionary and applying that mechanically,” he said.

Ethics and Power

Investigations from ProPublica and the Associated Press found that Justices Thomas Clarence, Samuel Alito, and Sonia Sotomayer had benefitted financially from their positions on the Supreme Court, such as through expensive gifts or book sales.

While Democrats say accepting expensive gifts and trips are the reason for imposing rules on the Supreme Court, they have often coupled the remarks with criticism that the court is stepping beyond its bounds and “legislating” via rulings.

Mr. Murphy told CNN, “They just see themselves as a second legislative body that has just as much power and right to impose their political will on the country, as Congress does.”

“They’re going to bend the law in order to impose their right-wing view of how the country should work on the rest of us,” Murphy added. “And it’s why we need to pass this common-sense ethics legislation to at least make sure we know that these guys aren’t in bed having their lifestyles paid for by conservative donors, as we have unfortunately seen in these latest revelations.”