Behind the Scenes of Justice Alito's Unprecedented Wall Street Journal Pre-buttal

[Nevilledog]

https://www.propublica.org/article/behind-scenes-alito-wall-street-journal-prebuttal-editorial


Around midday on Friday, June 16, ProPublica reporters Justin Elliott and Josh Kaplan sent an email to Patricia McCabe, the Supreme Court’s spokesperson, with questions for Justice Samuel Alito about a forthcoming story on his fishing trip to Alaska with a hedge fund billionaire.

We set a deadline of the following Tuesday at noon for a response.

Fifteen minutes later, McCabe called the reporters. It was an unusual moment in our dealings with the high court’s press office, the first time any of its public information officers had spoken directly with the ProPublica journalists in the many months we have spent looking into the justices’ ethics and conduct. When we sent detailed questions to the court for our stories on Justice Clarence Thomas, McCabe responded with an email that said they had been passed on to the justice. There was no further word from her before those stories appeared, not even a statement that Thomas would have no comment.

The conversation about Alito was brisk and professional. McCabe said she had noticed a formatting issue with an email, and the reporters agreed to resend the 18 questions in a Word document. Kaplan and Elliott told McCabe they understood that this was a busy time at the court and that they were willing to extend the deadline if Alito needed more time.

Monday was a federal holiday, Juneteenth. On Tuesday, McCabe called the reporters to tell them Alito would not respond to our requests for comment but said we should not write that he declined to comment. (In the story, we wrote that she told us he “would not be commenting.”)

She asked when the story was likely to be published. Certainly not today, the reporters replied. Perhaps as soon as Wednesday.

*snip*

[Midnight Writer]

1. Gee, Alito acting in a misleading and underhanded way? Who'd of thunk it?

[multigraincracker]

2. Could we remove the roof

on their building? Need some sunlight in there.

[erronis]

3. No creds, but Alito is acting a bit demented.

Last edited Sun Jun 25, 2023, 02:23 PM - Edit history (1)

I've had family members who have slowly slipped into full-blown dementia and/or Alzheimers. Sometimes their progress has stages of paranoia, lashing out, impulsiveness, loss of executive function.

Good thing the founding fathers thought of this eventuality and gave the US an exit path. NOT.

[OneGrassRoot]

6. What a great point...

So many things weren’t envisioned when the Constitution was written, including the average longevity greatly increasing. Lifetime terms are now MUCH longer.

[plimsoll]

12. The reporting was of an activity that took place 15 years ago,

And his responses to criticism have always been like this. Should we assume he was showing signs of dementia for his whole term. It's not dementia it's how autocrats respond when the peasants question their behavior.

He's a crook, the press have the receipts he's mad and wants to jump on the "fake news" bandwagon like every other GOP crook.

[erronis]

13. Sorry - I don't know what you're talking about. The ProPublica piece came out this week

along with Alito's pre-buttal. The leak of the Dobb's decision came out a year ago. Same type of impulsiveness.

Please tell me what episode you're talking about from 15 years ago. Sure, he's probably been an asshole all of his life but it's now inflamed.

[plimsoll]

15. His response to one of the gun rights decisions.

His minority opinion was that fully automatic sub-machines guns should be as easy to get as any other firearm. When questioned about it he attacked the questioner. He's just an ass, he may be getting worse, but it's not dementia. He's feeling the power and we peons should STFU.

[ZonkerHarris]

4. SCOTUS and the WSJ are both corrupt as shit.

[TeamProg]

5. LOCK THEM UP ! !

[nuxvomica]

7. It's obvious to me this behavior shows he likely did the Dobbs leak

He apparently likes to "get ahead of the story" and this tactic is practically an admission he leaked the Dobbs opinion.

[malaise]

10. What a great point

[dalton99a]

17. +1

[moniss]

8. From the first I ever knew of him

I could tell that in order to see the average person Alito has a very, very long way to gaze down his nose.

[malaise]

9. but said we should not write that he declined to comment.

These fascists are something else

Rec

[EarnestPutz]

11. This quote from ProPublica really illustrates why I love what they do.

"If Alito had sent his response to us, we’d have asked some more questions. For example, Alito wrote that Supreme Court justices “commonly interpreted” the requirement to disclose gifts as not applying to “accommodations and transportation for social events.” We would have asked whether he meant to say it was common practice for justices to accept free vacations and private jet flights without disclosing them."

Boom! That left a mark.

[Boomerproud]

14. Just another day one institution washing the hands of another.

"OH, SCOTUS. so sorry about the font on the email."

[UTUSN]

16. Hah, nice coinage, (ALITO's) "pre-buttal" - plus, they say he had the STREISAND Effect,

of calling more attention to it by responding.

[JudyM]

18. Excellent post and reaction by ProPublica.

So classy and still bit alito in the ass.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

19. Justice Samuel Alito, his wife Martha-Ann, and Leonard Leo in Versailles, France.

Link to tweet