LIGHTS OUT

Trumpy Justice Lets Slip Greatest Fear After Dem Landslide

The nation’s highest court could be targeted by the Democrat-controlled Congress.

Conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has acknowledged that Congress has the power to “turn off the lights” at the nation’s highest court if it decides to defund it.

During rare public remarks at the Federalist Society’s annual Antonin Scalia Memorial Dinner on Thursday, Alito warned against Congress blocking the court’s budget while defending the need for an independent judiciary.

While the Constitution requires Supreme Court justices to continue being paid while they sit on the bench, Congress could vote to strip away additional funding, such as money for clerks’ salaries and building upkeep.

“Congress can turn off the lights at the Supreme Court and stop everything from happening if they want to defund their activities. And there are many, many, many other things that they can do, or at least try to do,” Alito said, via The Hill. “So, it is important to preserve the independence of the judiciary. If that is eliminated, then the Constitution as adopted in 1789 will no longer be the same.”

Alito’s speech did not mention the Democratic Party or the blue tsunami in the midterms, in which the party swept control of the House and Senate.

However, Democrats could target and reshape the Supreme Court once they retake control of Congress. This includes trying to introduce term limits, new ethics rules, or packing the court to add seats and shift its ideological balance.

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New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries wrote in a letter to his colleagues that they must “clean up the mess at the Supreme Court” while announcing his intention to run for House speaker.

Elsewhere in his speech before more than 1,000 conservative lawyers, Alito, a George W. Bush appointee, described the judiciary as the least powerful of the three branches of government and said it was more “vulnerable” to Congress.

However, the justice warned that it still has a powerful influence on the country.

“If you think about a hand grenade, a 500-pound bomb and a nuclear weapon,” he said. “The hand grenade is the least dangerous. But that is not to say that it is not dangerous.”

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Alito, who once flew flags outside his homes similar to those spotted at the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, also used his speech to condemn lower-court judges who issued “unjustified” orders blocking presidents’ policies.

“They are dedicated and they are skillful, but they’re not perfect and they make mistakes,” Alito said. “And in some instances, I think they have gone far astray in abuse of their powers.”

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