Source: Washington Post
by Alexandra Petri
“In the hours after Samuel A. Alito Jr. learned that secretly captured recordings of a private conversation were going to be made public, the Supreme Court justice was frantic, close associates say, worrying the tapes would undermine the image he has worked to create of exactly what kind of judge he is. But when publication revealed the comments to be merely an endorsement of the need ‘to return our country to a place of godliness,’ that worry gave way to relief. ‘That could have been so much worse,’ Alito said in a subsequent interview. ‘What if I’d said something temperate or reasonable?’ ‘Any time I open my mouth, there’s always a chance that something might come out that doesn’t sound petty and vindictive,’ the justice allowed. “What if I mishear something and accidentally agree that justices must take care to recuse themselves after any whiff of impropriety?'” (06/13/24)