Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was the target of new reports raising ethical concerns about his spouse's fossil fuel lease and his close connections at a top law firm with interests in an undecided case before the court.
Alito's spouse, Martha Ann Bomgardner Alito, leased a 160-acre plot in Oklahoma to oil and gas company Citizen Energy III with an understanding that she would recoup 3/16th of the profit from fuel extracted, according to a new report from The Intercept. However, the company does not have any cases before the Supreme Court, meaning the lease does not present a direct conflict of interest to the justice's work on the high court.
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Last year, Alito joined the other five Republican-appointed justices to gut the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants in a 6-3 decision known as West Virginia v. EPA. This year, he penned a unanimous decision in Sackett v. EPA which scaled back the Clean Water Act, reducing its mandate by tens of millions of acres.
The plaintiffs' position in Sackett was backed by groups with extensive interests in the energy industry, including the American Gas Association, the American Petroleum Institute, and the Liquid Energy Pipeline Association.
The Washington Examiner contacted the Supreme Court for a response.
The report comes just days after Alito was the subject of a ProPublica report that revealed in 2008 he went on an Alaskan fishing trip via a private jet flight with billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer, who later had an interest in a 2014 case between Singer's hedge fund and the country of Argentina. Alito joined the 7-1 decision, but responded before the report release saying he was unaware of Singer's involvement in the case and that "recusal would not have been required or appropriate."
Unlike other federal courts, the Supreme Court doesn't maintain an enforceable 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 is discretionary, though the justices do consult the same rules as lower court judges.
Alito also came under scrutiny Monday for his apparent ties to law firm Cooper & Kirk, which is defending North Carolina's gerrymandered map in a pending case known as Moore v. Harper. The justice is a longtime friend and former colleague of the firm's chairman and founding partner Charles Cooper, according to Accountable.US, a center-left advocacy group, and self-described “nonpartisan watchdog group."
"Charles Cooper recruited Justice Alito as his Deputy Assistant Attorney General during the Reagan Administration and 'remained friendly with' Alito afterward," according to Accountable.US. The group also said that Cooper & Kirk partner Megan Wold, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in Moore, once served as a law clerk to Alito.
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The outlet ProPublica caught the public's attention in April with a report that detailed undisclosed gifts and financial support to Justice Clarence Thomas by wealthy GOP donor Harlan Crow.
Since then, other Republican-appointed justices have been the subject of similar reports, including Justice Neil Gorsuch for an undisclosed property sale to a lawyer with business before the court and Chief Justice John Roberts, whose wife's employment as a legal recruiter for lawyers who often argue before the high court raised additional ethics inquiries.