Secret Audio of Alito Isn't the Smoking Gun Liberals Think
The recordings of the Supreme Court justice, his wife, and Chief Justice John Roberts don’t tell us anything we didn’t already know.
Not seeing eye to eye.
Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty ImagesIt’s hard to imagine a clearer violation of journalistic ethics than pretending to hold beliefs you don’t, asking Supreme Court justices if they agree, and surreptitiously recording their answers at a no-media dinner. The novelty of the stunt, however, shouldn’t distract us from the real takeaway, which is precisely that the recordings yielded nothing we didn’t already know.
The key conclusions are that Justice Samuel Alito is a religious man; his wife Martha-Ann likes political flags; and Chief Justice John Roberts is genuinely committed to the (somewhat unrealistic) idea that only elected officials — not judges — should make moral decisions.