Activist releases secret recordings of SCOTUS justices, including Alito on probe of Dobbs leak

A liberal activist released secret audio recordings Monday of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito discussing a range of issues, including the country's polarization and a probe into a leak of the Court's majority opinion that returned the matter of abortion to the states.

The Supreme Court issued a highly controversial opinion in June of 2022, that referred the topic of abortion to individual states and overturned the historic ruling in Roe v. Wade. A draft of the opinion was leaked to Politico prior to the ruling, prompting an investigation by the court’s marshal, Gail Curley. But the culprit responsible for the leak was never identified.

Alito told liberal activist and documentary filmmaker Lauren Windsor at a Supreme Court Historical Society event in June 2023 that the court was limited in its power to investigate the leak, and that even the marshal was limited, Politico reported. Windsor posted the audio recordings to X, and shared them with Rolling Stone.

“It’s hard,” Alito told Windsor, who posed as a pro-life conservative. “You know, you can’t name somebody unless you know for sure, and we don’t have the power to do the things that would be necessary to try to figure out, nail down exactly [who did it]. And even then we might not be able to do it. We don’t have the power to subpoena people to testify, to subpoena records, phone records or other things like that. We don’t have that authority.

“We’re not a law enforcement agency, you know,” Alito continued. “People have certain rights to privacy, so law enforcement agencies can issue subpoenas, get search warrants, all that sort of thing, but we can’t do that. Our marshal did as much as she could do, but that was limited.”

Alito also addressed the partisan split in the country, claiming he does not believe it is the high court's job to unify the country. He also blamed the press for the negative depictions of the court, stating they contributed to the erosion of the country's trust in the institution.

"It’s easy to blame the media, but I do blame them because they do nothing but criticize us," Alito told Windsor. "So they have really eroded trust in the court. … American citizens in general need to work on this to heal this polarization because it’s very dangerous ... I don’t think [unifying] is something we [the court] can do. We have a very defined role and we need to do what we’re supposed to do. But this is a bigger problem. This is way above us.” 

The Supreme Court's Chief Justice John Roberts rejected the idea that the country is currently highly polarized, arguing that there had been worse times in the past. 

“I have been here almost 20 years. There have been quieter times,” the chief justice said in his own leaked recording with Windsor from last week. “But the idea that the court is in the middle of a lot of tumultuous stuff going on, that's nothing new ... The Civil War — we did that. During Vietnam, people were getting killed. … This is all right. I mean, it’s not all right, but it’s not like it’s dramatically different.”

Windsor also spoke undercover with Alito's wife Martha Ann Alito about the recent controversy around an upside down American flag being flown outside of her house in Virginia. Martha Ann Alito appeared to threaten to sue news agencies for libel over the coverage.

“There’s a five-year defamation statute of limitations,” she said. “Don’t get angry. Get even.” 

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just the News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.