Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito warned that the incoming Democrat-controlled Congress could cripple the judiciary by cutting off its funding, telling an audience of conservative lawyers that Congress has the power to "turn off the lights at the Supreme Court."
Alito made the remarks Thursday at The Federalist Society's annual Antonin Scalia Memorial Dinner in Washington, where he was interviewed by Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway. The event drew more than 1,000 conservative lawyers, according to PJ Media.
"Congress can turn off the lights at the Supreme Court and stop everything from happening if they want to defund their activities," Alito said. "And there are many, many, many other things that they can do, or at least try to do."
He continued: "So, it is important to preserve the independence of the judiciary. If that is eliminated, then the Constitution as adopted in 1789 will no longer be the same."
The warning came one week after Democrats won both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, according to PJ Media and ZeroHedge. Alito did not mention the midterms by name, but the timing was unmistakable.
Democrats have already floated using the power of the purse as a weapon against the court's conservative majority, PJ Media reported. Some Democratic lawmakers have proposed changes to the Supreme Court, including term limits on justices, who are appointed by a president to serve for life unless removed, according to ZeroHedge.
Alito described the judiciary as the weakest of the three branches of government and said it remains "vulnerable" to both Congress and the executive. A branch with no army and no budget of its own can only survive so long as the other two branches respect its role.
"If you think about a hand grenade, a 500-pound bomb, and a nuclear weapon, the hand grenade is the least dangerous," Alito said, acknowledging that judges can overstep. "But that is not to say that it is not dangerous."
He also took aim at lower-court judges who have issued what he called "unjustified" orders blocking presidential policies. "They are dedicated and they are skillful, but they're not perfect, and they make mistakes," Alito said. "And in some instances, I think they have gone far astray in abuse of their powers."
The justice's remarks come amid rising threats against the institution. Over the summer, Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett testified before Congress to seek more security funding for the Supreme Court, ZeroHedge reported. After the 2022 leak of the opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, penned by Alito, a suspect was arrested for the attempted assassination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh outside his home. Nicholas Roske was later convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison.
"Maybe I lack imagination, but I didn't expect that performing this service was going to put me in the position of explaining to my children what a bulletproof vest was and why I had to wear one," Barrett told a House committee in mid-July, according to ZeroHedge.
The Federalist Society takes no official political or legal positions, but for decades it has served as the training ground for lawyers who go on to become Republican judicial nominees.
Our Take
Alito isn't fearmongering. He's reading the room. Democrats spent years promising to remake the Supreme Court because they can't win at the ballot box on their agenda. Now they control both chambers and the purse strings, and the justice is telling us exactly what they can do with that power.
Defunding the court isn't some hypothetical. It's a lever Congress has always held, and the Left has shown zero restraint when it comes to institutional norms it doesn't like. The same people who screamed about " threats to democracy " are now openly discussing starving the judicial branch of resources until it bends.
Alito's comparison of judges to weapons is telling. He's not defending an imperial judiciary. He's saying judges can abuse power too. But the answer to that isn't to let Congress gut the branch entirely. It's to respect the separation of powers the Founders designed.
Patriots, this is what we warned about. The judiciary is the last line of defense for the Constitution, and the Left knows it. If they can't control the courts, they'll try to cripple them. The question is: will Republicans in Congress fight back, or will they let the lights go out?
