Alito Says Congress Could 'Turn Off The Lights' At Supreme Court, Criticizes Lower-Court Judges

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, 76, warned Thursday that Congress could “turn off the lights” at the court by cutting its funding, less than two weeks after Democrats won both the House and the Senate. He spoke at the Federalist Society's Antonin Scalia Memorial Dinner before a crowd of more than 1,000 conservative lawyers, tying the warning to preserving judicial independence.

“Congress can turn off the lights at the Supreme Court and stop everything from happening if they want to defund their activities,” Alito said, adding that Congress has “many, many, many other things” it could try. He said lower-court judges are dedicated and skillful but not perfect, and that some have “gone far astray in abuse of their powers” by issuing unjustified orders blocking presidents' policies. He compared the judiciary to a hand grenade, which is the least dangerous weapon but still dangerous. In a fireside chat with Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway, he named freedom of speech, religious liberty and racial equality as principles to preserve. Lower courts have blocked Trump efforts on mail-in voting, birthright citizenship and a White House ballroom.

The New Republic and HuffPost, on the left, lead with Alito's attack on lower-court judges and the timing after the Democratic wins. They note he did not mention Trump's attacks on judges, the midterms or which rulings he meant. The New Republic calls his claim unjustified orders highly questionable and the defunding warning hyperbolic. Fox News and The Federalist, on the right, frame it as a warning about judicial independence and core freedoms. Fox cites the blue tsunami, with Republicans losing 42 House and eight Senate seats, plus Democratic calls for investigations and the Iran war. Both sides quote the “turn off the lights” line. ZeroHedge largely matches the left's focus on the funding warning, adding Kagan's and Barrett's earlier security-funding testimony.