Alito Warns Congress Can ‘Turn Off the Lights’ at the Supreme Court as Democrats Prepare to Take Over
Justice Samuel Alito warned Thursday night that Congress has the power to “turn off the lights” at the Supreme Court, a week after Democrats won control of both the House and Senate.
“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, The Hill reported.
“So, it is important to preserve the independence of the judiciary,” he added. “If that is eliminated, then the Constitution as adopted in 1789 will no longer be the same.”
Alito spoke at the Federalist Society’s annual Antonin Scalia Memorial Dinner, held during the group’s national convention, before a crowd of more than 1,000 conservative lawyers.
He did not mention the midterm elections or the coming change in power. But Democrats have eyed Congress’s power of the purse as leverage against the conservative-majority court before.
The justices have been watching their budget closely. Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett made a rare visit to Capitol Hill over the summer to press for the judiciary’s budget and more security funding as threats against judges rise, The Hill noted.
The Constitution bars Congress from cutting a sitting justice’s pay. Lawmakers could still squeeze money for clerks, security, building upkeep and other operations that keep the court running.
Democratic leaders have already signaled the court is a target. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told colleagues in a letter announcing his run for speaker that they must “clean up the mess at the Supreme Court,” The Daily Beast reported.
Ideas floated on the left include term limits, new ethics rules and adding seats to the court to change its ideological balance.
‘A Hand Grenade’
Alito described the judiciary as the least powerful of the three branches and said it is “vulnerable” to both Congress and the executive. He stressed that it still carries real force.
“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.”
He also took aim at lower-court judges who have issued what he called 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,” according to The Hill.
Alito, 76, is the second-oldest justice on the court. He has told friends he does not plan to retire, as CDN reported, even as some Republicans worried the window to replace him with a Trump appointee was closing.
With Republicans keeping control of the Senate only until January, any vacancy after that would need the approval of a Democratic majority.
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