[UPDATE] Justice Samuel Alito says a “concerted effort” is trying to intimidate the Supreme Court into deciding cases differently
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.”
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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.
What Alito’s intimidation warning gets read against:
- 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