A new book about Alito comes as court watchers question whether the conservative judge is ready to retire.
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WASHINGTON – When a controversy erupted over a flag in front of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s home, a leading conservative rejected calls from his critics to recuse himself from cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Alito said the flag belonged to his wife and was not raised in support of the Stop the Steal movement, which falsely claims the 2020 election was stolen from President Donald Trump.
But while Alito did not recuse himself, he did relinquish his role as author of the court’s opinion that prosecutors went too far in bringing obstruction charges against some of the Capitol rioters, according to a new book.
After the New York Times reported the flag story in May 2024, Alito told Chief Justice John Roberts that the court would be better off not writing the opinion, conservative author Molly Hemingway writes in “Alito: The Judge Who Reformed the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution.”
“Roberts owed him an opinion and took it upon himself,” Hemingway wrote.
The New York Times first reported on the switch in September 2024, writing that it was not clear who initiated the change.
Hemingway called the media’s reaction to the flag exaggerated, writing that many Americans “considered the media’s attacks on Justice Alito nothing more than a ploy to delegitimize the court’s conservative majority, which they deplored.”
“Everyone who knew the couple knew that Martha Ann, a fiercely independent woman, was in charge of the flag,” she wrote.
Book lands amid retirement speculation
Hemingway’s book comes as court watchers wonder if Alito, the second-oldest justice, is considering retirement.
Fox News and other outlets reported that Alito would not resign.
Alito, 76, plans to publish his book in the fall, just as the court begins its new term.
The publication date sparked speculation that Alito planned to spend October promoting his book rather than serving on the court.
However, some point out that Alito would likely sell even more if he was still righteous at the time of release.
Alito’s book, “So Ordered: An Originalist View of the Constitution, the Courts, and the Counties,” will detail Alito’s judicial philosophy and the court’s role in “protecting the spirit of American freedom,” according to his publisher Hachette Book Group.
‘Disappointed’ by colleague’s lack of urgency
A reliable vote for conservative causes since joining the court in 2006, Alito has pushed the law to the right on issues ranging from criminal procedure to religious freedom. He authored a landmark decision in June 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutional right to abortion.
“This was a crowning achievement for a justice who had received less attention than his colleagues,” Hemingway wrote in a complimentary portrait of Alito.
She said the justices were “disappointed by the lack of alarm on the part of some of their colleagues about censorship and other threats to constitutional order.”
Another book about Alito, also published this month, suggests that Alito is trying to right the wrongs of the past 60 years.
“This is a sincere and intelligently crafted theory, but one born of intense emotions of anger and betrayal,” wrote author and Politico editor-in-chief Peter Kanellos. “This law seeks to impose what its adherents believe is right from the peaceful memories of their childhoods, and it is shaking the surface of American law in the 21st century.”
