Justice Alito Exposes "Concerted Effort" to Take Down SCOTUS

Sekulow

The episode centers on Justice Samuel Alito's recent media appearances where he warns of a concerted effort to intimidate the Supreme Court and influence its rulings, particularly following the unprecedented leak of his

Key takeaways

• Justice Alito stated there is a concerted effort to intimidate justices to influence case outcomes, citing death threats and assassination attempts against colleagues like Brett Kavanaugh.
• The leak of the draft Dobbs opinion was described by Alito as a grave breach of trust that predictably made majority justices targets for extreme retaliation.

Main topics

• Supreme Court intimidation and threats
• Dobbs opinion leak and aftermath

Notable quotes

"There has been a concerted effort to intimidate the court and justices on the court to try to influence us to decide cases differently from the way in which we have been deciding them."

Conclusion

The episode underscores growing political polarization threatening judicial

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) On today's show, we cover Justice Alito exposing a concerted effort to take down the Supreme Court of the United States. Speaker 1 (0:07) Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Sekulow. Speaker 1 (0:14) We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. Speaker 1 (0:24) And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Speaker 3 (0:27) Sekulow. This is Logan Sekulow. Will Haynes in studio. Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us a little bit later. Look, in a new world we live in, you get to hear a lot more from Supreme Court justices. And I think it's about time, actually, that the American people get to spend a little more time, a little more personal time with the Supreme Court justices, as, of course, they are deciding the laws of the land. Now, of course, this comes also at a time where just a few years ago, a lot of them were being doxxed and threatened and terrorized due to a leaked opinion. Something that really had not happened in a very long time, or not to this level, had really ever happened. It happened to be one of the most sensitive topics. Of course, it was the overturning of Roe versus Wade. So, we are going to discuss that at length because you had Justice Alito. appearing on the shannon bream uh sunday morning shows on fox news and laying down some truth had a lot to say it was actually very interesting to hear him talk about things that again unprecedented that we would actually hear a direct response to a lot of the issues that came up whether it was the leak whether it was the death threats that came upon him, whether he's going to be retiring. These are questions that you typically would like to hear in an interview, but you don't often, maybe just due to the privacy that has always been the case for Supreme Court justices. That has changed dramatically in a few years, as now we know that they're broadcast, the time limits are different. A lot of things have changed in the Roberts Court, and we're going to discuss a lot of that. Of course, the unmaking of the Supreme Court. Discuss that as well, whether you will have... a packing the court situation what it could look like in the future and his concern that there is an effort Speaker 1 (2:05) a specific effort to take down the supreme court as we know it that's right so why was he even giving these interviews well these Speaker 5 (2:12) are the type of interviews you normally get at a time like this because he has a new book out of course so it's uh called so ordered an originalist view of the constitution the court and the country what is different though is that He is going beyond just what's in the book itself. He's going Speaker 1 (2:29) a little bit. He's going a C-span, like Speaker 3 (2:31) sit down with the book people that no one wants to watch. They go over very specific details of what's in the book, which is usually kind of vague. It's usually not like this. It's almost more like a weirdly Supreme Court self-help. I feel like it's not like, Speaker 1 (2:45) let's Speaker 3 (2:45) get into it. But this. This was a Speaker 5 (2:47) very different tone. That's right. And he also went on CBS, and we're going to play a lot of that sound, but I think this is one that caught our eye because you have to also think about where we are contextually. Today is the first day of the new Supreme Court term. Many people speculated he was going to retire at the end of last term. First Monday in October. Speaker 1 (3:04) And Speaker 5 (3:04) he did not. That's right. So first Monday in October, but we're also... A little ways away, just a few weeks away from the first Tuesday in November, which is the midterm elections where you are seeing an insurgent party trying to make a part of their redoing of the power base in this country is redoing the Supreme Court. That is a part of the plan. If they first get the midterms and then eventually they take the executive branch, you know that the Democrats want to redo this. And so let's play. This is Justice Alito, bite six from just yesterday. Speaker 6 (3:41) There has been a concerted effort to intimidate the court and justices on the court to try to influence us to decide cases differently from the way in which we have been deciding them. and I am concerned about the future of the court. Speaker 2 (4:01) They're saying he's concerned about the future of the court. Why? Because they're being intimidated, Speaker 3 (4:05) whether that's from the inside, whether it's from the outside, from social media, from people surrounding their homes, trying to get them to vote in a way that's different than not only what their conscience says, but what they believe the rule of law should be. Again, this has not been a court. As much as people want to push saying this is a conservative court, this is a Trump court, how many times have you all been on my chat mad at us and mad at the Supreme Court of the United States? Or how many times has President Trump been mad at the Supreme Court of the United States for not voting in his way? Speaker 3 (4:32) But they're worried about being bullied and bullied beyond just like, oh, we hope they vote one way. We're talking about people surrounding their homes, death threats, firebombs, all of these things that are happening that happened in real time and I'm sure are still happening from the smallest to the biggest. We're going to discuss it all and a lot more. What do you think about the future of the Supreme Court of the United States? Do you even care? 1-800-684-3110. Speaker 2 (5:06) Welcome back to Secular. We do have some phone lines open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Talking about Justice Alito making the rounds, making some appearances, of course, on Fox News, on Shannon Bream and some other options as well. But Shannon Bream, of course, attorney who knows a whole lot about the Supreme Court of the United States, has obviously been involved quite a bit, asked some really Speaker 3 (5:25) good and tough questions of Justice Alito, and he did not seem phased, nor did he seem to try to move the goalpost or change the answer. He took it head on. And look, some of the answers, quite frankly, are sad and a little scary. But that is what we're headed into if you have the remaking of the Supreme Court of the United States, which is what we know a lot of people want to see. And of course, they only want to see that right now as it feels like it's more conservative leaning. If they were in control, if the liberal justices were in control, of course, how dare? Someone suggests this. It's a game of politics. You know, whether you've seen the inside of the Republican Party, you've seen the inside of the Democratic Party, a lot of it is very dirty. We know this. We know politics can get gross. But we also know you now have the ability to rile up individuals, human beings who maybe are already off or already susceptible to manipulation. And it brings protests to the doorsteps of the Supreme Court justices. It brings... uh attacks it brings assassination attempts all of this is real Speaker 3 (6:29) And it's real because why? A group of Supreme Court justices decide that they have a point of view that they don't share necessarily with another portion of the United States of America. Something that, I don't know, it just exists in normal commonplace. But I think we should hear, this is kind of how it started, some of the conversation with Shannon Bream and Justice Alito. And I want to hear from you, your thoughts on this as we head into the midterms. How much... Does the Supreme Court of the United States matter to you? Two years out from a presidential candidate or from a new president of the United States, they're going to likely decide, just based on the age and where people are, they are likely going to decide another couple of Supreme Court justices at least. Does it weigh into your vote? I know it's been something we've pushed here for a long time. It always feels like it's a wall. It feels like that it's something you guys understand, but you don't necessarily always care about. But now you have the other side, maybe the more liberal side, spending more time talking about the Supreme Court of the United States. And I still feel like we don't in the conservative side. Phone Speaker 2 (7:27) lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. But let's hear from Shannon Bream and Justice Alito. By one. Speaker 7 (7:33) Groups on the left now saying it's time to reform the court. They need to either add justices, you guys need to be term limited, there needs to be an age limit. Do you all discuss those when they come up publicly? Speaker 6 (7:43) We do not discuss it. I am concerned about that. There has been a concerted effort to intimidate the court and justices on the court to try to influence us to decide cases differently from the way in which we have been deciding them. And I am concerned about the future of the court. I think it's an important institution. It has not always done the right thing. But I think on the whole, it has been fundamental in protecting our constitutional structure and the rights that all Americans enjoy. And Speaker 5 (8:22) when you hear that answer, based off the context in which Shannon Bream set it up about. It wasn't are you, you know, feeling like people are trying to intimidate it through threats of violence, which we know has been happening. He even goes on to talk about the death threats and the assassination attempts that have happened with his colleague Brett Kavanaugh, but also ones that have happened against other colleagues that they don't talk about as much. And you can understand if that was just all the answer was. But he's taking it a step further by responding to her question about left groups on the left saying it's time to reform the court. or that they need to add justices or term limit the justices. And his response is, there is a concerted effort to intimidate the court and justices on the court to try and influence us to decide cases differently from the way in which we've been deciding them. He is saying that even that is an intimidation tactic. trying to say like, well, if you keep doing this, we're just going to make you irrelevant. We're going to add justices. We're going to make you have to leave the court by capping the age that he sees even that as an intimidation tactic. And when you even think back to like, where did a lot of this start? We saw it in the break video. If you're watching on YouTube or Rumble or Facebook or wherever you watch. But if you were on radio, you may not have heard this. We've played it for years, but this was, I don't know. Someone who hopes to be the next majority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, on the steps of the Supreme Court, calling out new justices based off of what they were anticipating, the overturning of Roe v. Wade. This is bite 19 with Chuck Schumer giving this very distinct threat. Speaker 8 (10:07) I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. Speaker 8 (10:20) You won't know what hit you Speaker 3 (10:22) if you go forward with these awful decisions. Yeah, again, the exact moment where they are specifically told, don't go forward with the decisions that you feel like are correct. You feel like we'll uphold the law of the United States of America. If you don't go with us, you will unleash the whirlwind. Of course, let's ask him, Chuck Schumer. How do you feel about term limits, Chuck Schumer? How do you feel about age limits, Chuck Schumer? You're in your mid-70s. You've been around for quite some time. Speaker 3 (10:51) Of course, if the shoe was on the other foot, you'd have the exact opposite of a reaction because that's how Washington rolls. It doesn't matter as long as it's pushing your agenda forward. It doesn't matter if people's lives are threatened. It doesn't matter if kids are having to be put under protection because you have decided to essentially rile up a base. And I'm very proud of Justice Alito for going on these news sources and talking so openly. It is what we need more of. in the United States of America. I think we do need to hear from these Supreme Court justices. They don't need to be shadowy figures anymore. They don't need to be ones where, the idea that you can't have cameras in the court, that kind of thing, I can get that some ways. If we're going to start live streaming the audio, why can't we see it? Why haven't we gone that far? I think the American people deserve it. If you're going to be doing this, if you're going to already take these first steps, there's no reason why we can't have a couple camera people in there showing what's happening. There's no reason why we can't have a better response to when people complain about the Supreme Court of the United States. And again, we're pushing forward. We're pushing forward when it comes to the way technology is going to be involved. They've already changed how the court runs and operates right now. Speaker 3 (12:03) So the idea of adding extra justices, though it's a scary thought and I know what the thought process is from the other side, don't like laugh it off. It will be something that's going to come up depending on what, you know, who you have controlling the government in the next. a couple months, and then in the next couple of years. Speaker 5 (12:21) Well, right. And I think that that is part of this first step for those that want to, as they say, reform the court. In reality, it's make it in their own image. They will say Speaker 3 (12:30) pack the court, though. Oh, right. That's what I'm saying. Without