Sen. Whitehouse blasts corruption of the Court by oligarchs

Senator calls out history of ‘creepy billionaires meddling in the court’

By Walter Einenkel, Daily Kos Staff

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island spoke with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, giving a quick history lesson on how someone as corrupt as Samuel Alito could end up on the Supreme Court in the first place. 

"This goes way back. The person responsible for the appointment of Justice Alito was actually Leonard Leo, the operative of the Koch brothers and the creepy billionaires who have been meddling in the court,” Whitehouse explained. 

“You'll remember that [President George W.] Bush originally wanted to appoint his legal counsel, his friend, his fellow Texan, conservative, woman lawyer, to replace Sandra Day O'Connor—Harriet Miers,” he continued. “And he got attacked not by Democrats for that; he got attacked from these far-right billionaires. And he humiliatingly had to withdraw his own legal counsel’s nomination, and Leo produced the agreeable justice to the creepy billionaires: None other than Sam Alito.”

When Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announced she was retiring in 2005, it was Leo and his Federalist Society who helped create a campaign to put Alito on the bench.

Roberts’ confirmation was swiftly followed with yet another Supreme Court opening. Bush at first nominated his counsel, Harriet Miers. Conservatives—Leo’s allies—protested: Her resume was thin, her views on abortion suspect. Bush soon withdrew her nomination and offered a hard-right conservative: Samuel Alito. JCN ran yet more ads.

At a 2006 Federalist Society gala, Leo introduced now-Justice Alito to rapturous applause. He also made light of the group’s growing influence over judicial selection, which had drawn suspicions from Democrats. “It is a pleasure to stand before 1,500 of the most little known and elusive of that secret society or conspiracy we call the Federalist Society,” he said. “You may pick up your subpoenas on the way out.”

As Joan McCarter reported, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who has made calls for Alito to recuse himself, does have the power to do something, even without a super majority in the Senate. He can follow through on his threat to “move forward with compulsory process” for Leo and Republican mega donor Harlan Crow to testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee regarding their laundry list of meddling in the Supreme Court.  

The latest scandal comes less than a year after discovery of Justice Clarence Thomas’ friendship with Crow. And Alito has had three scandals in the last 12 months.* After blaming his wife for flying a “Stop the Steal” flag on his front yard in the weeks after the 2021 insurrection, a second inverted flag came to light, this time displayed at Alito’s beach house.

Democrats must continue holding Alito, Thomas, and Chief Justice John Roberts accountable for destroying Americans’ faith in our highest court—whether that means holding legitimate Judicial Committee investigations, doing interviews with the press, or both. 

*Not including the questions surrounding Alito’s potential involvement with leaking a draft of his decision in the Dobbs case, which overturned Roe v. Wade.