Justice Samuel Alito overruled the Dems attempt to impose regulations on the Supreme Court telling them to go pound sand in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Alito said:
“I marvel at all the nonsense that has been written about me in the last year. The traditional idea about how judges and justices should behave is they should be mute.
“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.
“I have not joined Justice Thomas, Justice [Antonin] Scalia, Justice Gorsuch in saying we should get rid of the Dormant Commerce Clause.
“I’ve written this in the Tennessee wine case—that the Constitution surely was meant to contain some principle that prevents the balkanization of the economy.
“That was one of the main reasons for calling the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
“I think history often tells us what the Constitution means, or at least it can tell us what the Constitution doesn’t mean.
“I reject the idea that a statute should be interpreted simply by looking up the words in the dictionary and applying that mechanically,
“When it’s very clear that the author of the text . . . cannot have meant something, then I don’t think we should adopt that interpretation, even if a purely semantic interpretation of the statute would lead you to a different result.
“Some decisions—and I think that Roe and Casey fell in this category—are so egregiously wrong, so clearly wrong, that’s a very strong factor in support of overruling.
“The question how broad a decision should be—should we overrule a prior precedent when we really don’t have to in order to decide this case?—it’s a judgment call.
“There can be reasons for deciding the case more narrowly.
“Maybe we’re not sure whether it should be overruled. Maybe we think it would be better if the issue were highlighted for others to address first—scholars, lower-court decisions.
“Maybe it’s a question of what a majority of the court is willing to go along with.
About the Dems attempt to ram through the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act, which wants to impose regulations on the justices and their clerks, Alito said not a chance.
“Congress did not create the Supreme Court. I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it.
“No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court—period,” he said.
Dear Justice Alito: You’re on the Supreme Court in part because Congress expanded the Court to 9 Justices. Congress can impeach Justices and can in many cases strip the Court of jurisdiction. Congress has always regulated you and will continue to do so. You are not above the law. https://t.co/efUO6SF4aj
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) July 28, 2023