Alito says Supreme Court can’t stem surge in emergency appeals, ‘not happy’ with Trump’s rhetoric

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito says the growing volume of emergency appeals to the court is not a good thing, but he adds there is little the court can do to change the trajectory.

The number of petitions asking the justices to intervene quickly has soared during President Donald Trump’s second administration, putting the court at the center of highly contentious issues such as the Republican president’s construction of a new ballroom and his proposed restrictions on mail-in voting in the midterm elections.

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The number of emergency requests now rivals the annual number of cases judges review with full briefs and oral arguments, Alito wrote in a new book released Tuesday.

The judge told The Associated Press in a rare interview that Trump and his administration’s rhetoric on the court did not sit well with him.

“Personally, I’m not happy with this,” he said. “Everyone in this country has the right to criticize what we do. The substance of their criticism can be quite harsh. If we deserve it, then that’s great. But rhetoric is another story.”

Alito spoke about his first book, “So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of The Constitution, The Court and Our Country.”

Published 20 years after he was appointed to the court by President George W. Bush, a Republican, the book is a collection of speeches the 76-year-old gave over the years on religious freedom, his judicial philosophy and constitutional rights.

Alito calls expressing his views as a MAGA offensive

Alito is perhaps best known for writing the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended abortion as a national right, and he has been one of the most consistent members of the Court’s conservative bloc. He also voted in favor of some of Trump’s signature policies, even those that the rest of the conservative wing rejected. But he rejects the idea that his decisions fall into the “Make America Great Again” camp.

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“It’s offensive,” he said. “I honestly try to decide every case on the merits, every claim on the merits. And that’s true whether the president is Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Barack Obama or anyone else.”

Trump, for his part, hailed Alito as “one of the greatest of all time,” while disparaging the justices he called “unpatriotic” and “simply a shell of themselves.” Alito said harsh rhetoric from all sides does not affect how justices rule, but plays a role in waning public confidence in the court.

“The terms used by presidents and members of their administration, Cabinet members, other high-ranking officers to describe the Supreme Court and their decisions, and sometimes individual justices, are very different from what we saw 15 years ago,” Alito said.

Much of the president’s frustration came after the court ruled against him on some of his central initiatives, including tariffs and citizenship rights. These decisions were rendered after months of reflection, including pleadings.

The increase in the number of emergency court decisions is likely to “continue”

When it comes to emergency decisions, on the other hand, the president has a much stronger winning record.

Typically issued within a few days or weeks, emergency orders are designed to be temporary and last only while cases continue to play out in lower courts. But because this process can take years, these decisions can still have important practical consequences.

Critics, including Alito’s liberal-leaning colleague Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, have complained about the court’s recent handling of the emergency case and outlined proposed steps the justices could take.

Alito, however, said there was little the court could do to stem the tide. Presidents are increasingly using executive orders to implement their policies rather than passing laws through Congress, leading to lawsuits and “strong” rulings from lower court judges who quickly send the case back to the Supreme Court, he said.

“Unless something changes there, and I don’t foresee it right now, I’m afraid this will continue,” he said. “A request is something I think we need to decide on.”

Alito says recusal of climate change case was not necessary but a ‘judgment’

Alito also detailed his decision to withdraw from the hearing on the climate change case that opened the term. Dozens of similar lawsuits have been filed over whether cities can sue oil and gas companies for damages related to global warming. Billions of dollars could be at stake, posing a potentially serious threat to the industry, according to court documents.

Alito had been called to recuse himself because he owned shares in oil companies. He told the AP that the shares came from an inheritance his wife received from her father and that she did not want to sell.

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He initially stayed on the case because he does not own shares in the companies involved, he explained, adding that the court’s legal office agreed that he could hear the case under its code of ethics.

But as he delved deeper into the merits of the case, he decided to step aside.

“This particular decision was a matter of judgment,” he said. “I thought about it very, very seriously.”