Justice Samuel Alito Warns Congressional Democrats Have the Ability to 'Turn Off the Lights' for the Supreme Court
The independence of the U.S. Supreme Court could be in jeopardy, Justice Samuel Alito warned Thursday.
Alito made no direct mention of the elections in which Democrats took control of Congress.
However, as noted by the New York Post, it was only three years ago that Democratic senators wanted to hold $10 million of the Supreme Court’s funding hostage until ethics guidelines Democrats supported were adopted.
“Congress can turn off the lights at the Supreme Court and stop everything from happening if they want to defund their activities. And there are many, many, many other things that they can do, or at least try to do,” Alito said, according to The Hill.
“So, it is important to preserve the independence of the judiciary,” he said. “If that is eliminated, then the Constitution as adopted in 1789 will no longer be the same.”
As noted by the New York Post, the court is a target for Democrats who have proposed adding justices to ensure the results Democrats want come from the court. They also may impose term limits that might end the terms of longer-serving justices, who are also part of the court’s conservative majority.
On Thursday, Alito indirectly rebuked lower-court judges who he implied have gone too far in blocking actions from President Donald Trump.
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He said the judges “are dedicated and they are skillful, but they’re not perfect and they make mistakes. And in some instances, I think they have gone far astray in abuse of their powers.”
“If you think about a hand grenade, a 500-pound bomb and a nuclear weapon, the hand grenade is the least dangerous. But that is not to say that it is not dangerous,’ he said.
As noted by Scotusblog, he said the judiciary is “the least powerful branch” of government, saying that “it is ‘vulnerable’ to Congress and the executive.”
Democrats appear to be adopting an “impeach-them-all-and-let-God-sort-them-out” approach. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested that impeaching Supreme Court justices because “you know, they kind of legalized a lot of his criminality.” … https://t.co/86yWDZOmUk
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) November 13, 2026
This summer, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey said Democrats would target the courts.
Booker called the changes “reforming” the court.
“The Supreme Court is another example of an area where most Americans agree,” Booker claimed.
Booker then argued in favor of imposing term limits on Supreme Court justices.
“In addition, most Americans agree that Supreme Court justices shouldn’t sit on those benches until they’re so ailing,” Booker said.
“So, yes, we have to think hard about how we’re going to reform the court and bring it back into alignment,” he added.
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