Press Releases

Washington, D.C. (January 9, 2025)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, released the following statement following a report that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito spoke with President-elect Donald Trump, one day before Trump’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to delay his sentencing in his New York hush money case:

“Yesterday, we learned that President-elect Trump spoke to Justice Alito just hours before Trump asked the Supreme Court to halt his criminal sentencing in New York. Justice Alito brushed off this startling ex parte private phone call and breach of judicial ethics by asserting that this perfectly timed conversation actually regarded his recommendation of a former clerk for an administration job. Especially when paired with his troubling past partisan ideological activity in favor of Trump, Justice Alito’s decision to have a personal phone call with President Trump—who obviously has an active and deeply personal matter before the court—makes clear that he fundamentally misunderstands the basic requirements of judicial ethics or, more likely, believes himself to be above judicial ethics altogether. 

“Justice Alito has made his political leanings and support for the president-elect clear, whether it be his display of flags in apparent support of the January 6th insurrectionists and the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement, or his self-proclaimed ideological battle with ‘the Left.’
 
“In our democracy, Americans expect their cases to be heard by impartial judges. This concept of impartiality goes back further than the Court’s own Code of Conduct and underlies even the earliest versions of the federal recusal statute.

“The mere act of having a personal telephone conversation with the president-elect, while he has active interests in matters currently pending before the court, is plainly sufficient to trigger a situation ‘in which the Justice’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.’

“Every federal judge and justice knows he or she must avoid situations such as this. Yet Justice Alito did not.

“Impartial justice under the Constitution demands that Justice Alito hold himself to the highest ethical standards and avoid even the appearance of impropriety. In light of his continuing display of political bias and corresponding abuse of the public trust, Justice Alito has a duty, under the constitution and federal law, and under the Supreme Court’s own Code of Conduct, to recuse from Donald J. Trump v. New York, et al., if the matter is in fact now referred to the entire Court.”