Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has been one of Donald Trump’s most reliable allies on the nation’s highest court.
But apparently even Alito has a line.
In a rare interview with the Associated Press published Tuesday, the deeply conservative justice directly addressed the increasingly aggressive rhetoric Trump and his administration have aimed at the Supreme Court — including attacks on conservative justices who dared to rule against him.
Alito made clear he doesn’t like what he’s hearing.
“I personally am not pleased with that.”
Alito acknowledged that presidents and everyone else have every right to criticize Supreme Court decisions, including harshly.
But, he said, there is a difference between criticizing a ruling and the kind of rhetoric increasingly being directed at the Court and individual justices.
The comments are especially notable coming from Alito.
Trump has repeatedly showered Alito with praise, recently calling him and Justice Clarence Thomas “legends.” Trump has been considerably less charitable toward the three justices he personally appointed — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — when they have ruled against him.
After losing major cases involving his tariffs and other policies, Trump lashed out at conservative justices, at one point calling some of them “fools and lapdogs” and complaining that his own appointees were “merely a shell of their original selves.”
Alito also pushed back against attempts to portray favorable conservative justices as members of the MAGA political movement.
“We are not part of any political movement,” Alito told CBS News. “And we are not attempting to further any political agenda.”
That distinction is particularly significant because Alito has consistently been one of the justices most supportive of Trump’s expansive view of presidential power.
Reuters reported last week that Alito and Thomas backed every major Trump administration policy that came before the Supreme Court during its previous term — even as Trump’s own three appointees occasionally broke with him.
Asked about suggestions that his decisions belong to a MAGA agenda, Alito was even more emphatic.
“It’s offensive,” he said.
Alito insisted that he decides cases on their merits regardless of whether the president is Trump, Joe Biden, Barack Obama or anyone else.
His comments come as the relationship between Trump and the conservative Supreme Court has become increasingly complicated.
Trump has enjoyed significant victories before the Court, particularly through emergency applications. But several major defeats have triggered furious responses from the president against conservative justices he once celebrated.
Alito says that kind of rhetoric has consequences beyond Washington’s daily political fights.
He told the Associated Press that while political attacks do not determine how justices vote, increasingly aggressive rhetoric contributes to declining public confidence in the Court.
“The terms used by presidents and by members of their administration, Cabinet officers, other high-ranking officers in describing the Supreme Court and their decisions, and sometimes individual justices, is far different from what we saw 15 years ago,” Alito said.
Alito was careful to criticize rhetoric coming from both parties. He specifically mentioned criticism of the Court during the Biden administration as well as Trump.
But when the discussion turned to Trump, Alito didn’t pretend the president’s attacks weren’t part of the problem.
And that makes the exchange unusual.
This isn’t a liberal justice attacking Trump.
It’s Samuel Alito — a conservative justice Trump has repeatedly praised and whose votes have frequently helped advance Trump administration policies — publicly saying there are limits to the kind of rhetoric he wants to hear directed at the Supreme Court.
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