On secret recording, Justice Alito agrees on need to return US to 'place of godliness'
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito agreed with a woman who approached him during a June 3 meeting of the Supreme Court Historical Society and commented that people who believe in God have to keep fighting “to return our country to a place of godliness.” (Photo by J. Scott Applewhite/The Associated Press)
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito agreed with a woman who approached him during a June 3 meeting of the Supreme Court Historical Society and commented that people who believe in God have to keep fighting “to return our country to a place of godliness.”
The woman who approached Alito was Lauren Windsor, a liberal documentary filmmaker who pays dues to belong to the society. Her questions were phrased to make herself appear to be a religious conservative, according to the Rolling Stone, which obtained Windsor’s secret recording of the conversation.
Rolling Stone reported on the conversation and posted the recording.
“As a Catholic and as someone who, like, really cherishes my faith,” Windsor said, “I just don’t, I don’t know that we can negotiate with the left in the way that, like, needs to happen for the polarization to end. I think that it’s a matter of, like, winning.”
Alito responds that Windsor is “probably right” that one side or another is going to win.
“I don’t know,” Alito added. “I mean, there can be a way of working—a way of living together peacefully, but it’s difficult, you know, because there are differences on fundamental things that really can’t be compromised. They really can’t be compromised. So it’s not like you are going to split the difference.”
Windsor continues. “People in this country who believe in God have got to keep fighting for that—to return our country to a place of godliness.”
Alito replies, “I agree with you.”
Windsor got different answers when she spoke to Chief Justice John Roberts. Asked about polarization, Roberts said the idea that the Supreme Court “is in the middle of a lot of tumultuous stuff going on is nothing new.”
He cited “what the court was doing in the ’60s, what the court was doing during the New Deal, what the court was doing, you know, after Dred Scott and all this, it’s kind of a regular thing.”
He also disagreed that polarization is irreparable, saying polarization was extreme during the Civil War and the Vietnam War.
Windsor asked whether there was a role for the Supreme Court in guiding the United States to a moral path. Roberts countered that the role of the high court is deciding cases.
“Would you want me to be in charge of putting the nation on a more moral path?” Roberts asked. “That’s for people we elect. That’s not for lawyers.”
When Windsor said the United States is a “Christian nation,” Roberts replied that he has a lot of Jewish and Muslim friends who would say, “Maybe not.”
Windsor also recorded Alito’s wife, Martha-Ann Alito, who commented on the flag controversy during the event, the New York Times reports. An upside-down flag was flown outside the Alitos’ home and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag was flown outside their beach house. Both flags are symbols of support for former President Donald Trump and his stolen-election claims.
“You know what I want?” Martha-Ann Alito said. “I want a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag because I have to look across the lagoon at the Pride flag for the next month.”
She added that her husband asked her not to put up a flag, and she said she wouldn’t, at least not until he is “free of this nonsense.”
The recordings posted online by Windsor were edited, according to the New York Times.
The Volokh Conspiracy published a statement by James Duff, the executive director of the Supreme Court Historical Society.
“We condemn the surreptitious recording of justices at the event, which is inconsistent with the entire spirit of the evening,” Duff said. “Attendees are advised that discussion of current cases, cases decided by current sitting justices, or a justice’s jurisprudence is strictly prohibited and may result in forfeiture of membership in the society.”
