Chuck Darwin<p>A deal Justice <a href="https://c.im/tags/Alito" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Alito</span></a>’s wife made with an <a href="https://c.im/tags/energy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>energy</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/company" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>company</span></a> paints recent Supreme Court decisions on the <a href="https://c.im/tags/environment" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>environment</span></a> in a damning light.</p><p>“What makes political figures who violate ethics laws so exceptional is how much <a href="https://c.im/tags/obviously" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>obviously</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/unethical" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>unethical</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/behavior" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>behavior</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/is" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>is</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/legal" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>legal</span></a> under our current overly permissive rules,” Hauser said. </p><p>“Our current ethics regime assumes that a person’s financial interests need to be extremely specific in order to influence their behavior, a worldview that ignores the foresight rich people and corporations regularly demonstrate.”</p><p><a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/06/26/samuel-alito-oil-gas-supreme-court-environment/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">theintercept.com/2023/06/26/sa</span><span class="invisible">muel-alito-oil-gas-supreme-court-environment/</span></a></p><p>Unlike other federal courts, the Supreme Court does not have a legally binding ethics code. While justices are required to file financial disclosures under the Ethics in Government Act, the choice of whether or not to recuse from cases involving a conflict of interest is entirely self-enforced.<br>This loophole caught the public’s attention in April, when a ProPublica report detailed the lavish, undisclosed gifts and financial support Justice Clarence <a href="https://c.im/tags/Thomas" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Thomas</span></a> and his family received from billionaire GOP megadonor Harlan <a href="https://c.im/tags/Crow" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Crow</span></a>. <br>Since then, other justices’ financial dealings have been called into question, including Neil <a href="https://c.im/tags/Gorsuch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Gorsuch</span></a> for an undisclosed property sale to a lawyer with business before the court, and John <a href="https://c.im/tags/Roberts" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Roberts</span></a>, whose wife’s employment as a legal recruiter for Supreme Court-bound lawyers raised a host of ethics questions.<br><a href="https://c.im/tags/Alito" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Alito</span></a> now finds himself in a position similar to Thomas, after another ProPublica report from last week described a fishing trip and private jet ride the justice took with conservative operative <a href="https://c.im/tags/Leonard" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Leonard</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Leo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Leo</span></a> and billionaire hedge fund manager <a href="https://c.im/tags/Paul" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Paul</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Singer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Singer</span></a>, valued at over $100,000. While pictures from the trip suggest that Alito personally appreciates the bounty of America’s dwindling unpolluted landscape, his rulings in environmental cases suggest that politically he does not. <br>Before publishing its investigation into Alito’s relationship with Singer — whose business model is organized around using the courts, including the Supreme Court, to extract payments from distressed bond issuers — ProPublica reached out to Alito with a list of questions. Alito responded by penning a <a href="https://c.im/tags/defensive" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>defensive</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/essay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>essay</span></a> in the Wall Street Journal, which <a href="https://c.im/tags/published" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>published</span></a> the response <a href="https://c.im/tags/before" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>before</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/ProPublica" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ProPublica</span></a> had even published its story. </p>