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Ongoing13 earlier updates40 days

This story has run 14 times over 40 days, starting Aug 26.

  1. USPS violated a court order to finalize Trump’s mail-ballot rule; judge allows publication
  2. Judge clears Trump’s USPS mail-ballot rule; 24 states and D.C. sue hours later
  3. UpdateJudge blocks USPS from rejecting noncompliant mail ballots for 14 days; DOJ appeals
  4. UpdateMissouri asks the Supreme Court to reinstate its 7-1 congressional map three days before the ballot deadline
  5. Kavanaugh leaves Missouri's 6-2 map in place; hours later a federal judge orders the state to run the 7-1 map
  6. UpdateStates ask Supreme Court to keep new USPS ballot requirements blocked
  7. Update3-0 First Circuit keeps Trump mail-ballot rule blocked as 7 Republican officials oppose pre-November start
  8. UpdateSupreme Court leaves Trump's USPS mail-ballot rules blocked for Nov. 3 midterms in apparent 7-2 vote
  9. UpdateMail ballots will move under pre-2026 rules on Nov. 3 as the administration stands down
  10. UpdateSupreme Court lets states resume checking voter rolls against Trump's expanded federal citizenship database while the case is appealed
  11. Supreme Court votes 6-3 to let Trump deport migrants to third countries without notice or a chance to raise torture fears
  12. Supreme Court agrees to decide whether ICE can jail immigrants who entered illegally without a bond hearing
  13. Supreme Court opens its term Oct. 5 with 30 cases, after rulings against Trump on tariffs and more
  14. UpdateJustice Samuel Alito says a “concerted effort” is trying to intimidate the Supreme Court into deciding cases differently — this issue
WASHINGTON EXAMINERUpdate

Justice Samuel Alito says a “concerted effort” is trying to intimidate the Supreme Court into deciding cases differently

Courts and the administration
Political Guyentist · October 5, 20262 min read

WASHINGTON EXAMINER

He named no incident or person; separately, he told CBS that political attacks, most recently Donald Trump’s, “can be quite damaging.”

Alito, 76, made the claim on Fox News Sunday on Sunday, Oct. 4. He was promoting his new book, “So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country.”

The claim. He described “a concerted effort to intimidate the court and justices on the court to try to influence us to decide cases differently.” He named no person or incident. He said he worries about “the escalation in public rhetoric” from “people in important positions.”

On Trump. Trump has praised Alito while attacking three justices he appointed: Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett. Asked about this, Alito said: “I put all of that out of my mind. I trust that my colleagues put all of that out of their minds.”

Catch upwhat happened before · 13 earlier issues

On Oct. 4, Alito told CBS he thought about retiring after the term that ended in June and must weigh it every year. He said it weeks before midterm elections that decide which party controls the Senate, which confirms justices.

12 earlier issues
What Alito’s intimidation warning gets read againstJune 8, 2022: an armed man was arrested outside Kavanaugh’s Maryland home; the attacker was sentenced in October 2025 to 8 years 1…3 details
  • June 8, 2022: an armed man was arrested outside Kavanaugh’s Maryland home; the attacker was sentenced in October 2025 to 8 years 1 month
  • Spring 2026: police were sent to Barrett’s Virginia home on a false report of gunshots, about six weeks before her July 14 House testimony
  • Justice Elena Kagan told the House that the Court’s police project a 38% rise in threats against the justices in 2026, after a 25% rise in 2025

What we’re less sure of4 of 8 claims