{"id":60,"date":"2026-05-20T13:40:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=60"},"modified":"2026-05-20T13:40:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:40:48","slug":"watchdogs-urge-senate-to-investigate-samuel-alitos-oil-stock-conflicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=60","title":{"rendered":"Watchdogs Urge Senate to Investigate Samuel Alito\u2019s Oil Stock Conflicts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This story was originally published b<\/em>y\u00a0the<\/em>\u00a0Guardian\u00a0and\u00a0is reproduced here as part of the\u00a0<\/em>Climate Desk\u00a0collaboration.<\/em><\/p>

Read more First, a $1.8 Billion Slush Fund. Now Trump Aims to Weasel Out of IRS Audits \u201cForever\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The Supreme Court <\/span>justice\u00a0Samuel Alito,\u00a0who owns stock in oil companies, may be violating court ethics codes by participating in certain cases that could benefit Big Oil, government watchdog groups say.<\/p>\n

In a Thursday\u00a0letter, a coalition of watchdog organizations called on the Senate judiciary committee to investigate Alito, the sole\u00a0Supreme Court\u00a0justice with holdings in energy companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis irregular recusal practice in oil and gas industry-related cases is undermining public confidence in the impartiality of the Court,\u201d says the letter, signed by green groups including League of Conservation Voters and Center for Biological Diversity, as well as progressive accountability watchdogs the Revolving Door Project and True North Research.<\/p>\n

The high court in February agreed to take up a case brought by the\u00a0oil majors Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil\u2014the first time the court\u00a0agreed\u00a0to weigh in on such a challenge. The companies asked the justices to find that federal law prevents subnational governments from filing lawsuits against oil and gas companies for the climate-warming effects of their products.<\/p>\n

The court did not say which justices supported weighing in on the petition. Alito did not recuse himself, the letter notes. \u201cNo judge on any court, including the high court, should be allowed to hear cases where he or she have a financial stake in those cases,\u201d said Lisa Graves, a former senior justice department official who now directs True North Research.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Alito recused himself from considering a petition brought by the same companies in the same lawsuit. That request, which would have required approval from four judges, was denied.<\/p>\n

The justice\u2019s most recent financial disclosure, which was filed last August and covers 2024, showed holdings in individual stock worth between $60,007 and $245,000 in ConocoPhillips, Phillips66, and five other oil and energy companies. Alito also has up to $100,000 invested in a Vanguard fund in which ExxonMobil is the third-largest holding, the letter says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese holdings alone should compel Justice Alito to recuse himself from the Boulder case and the parallel state climate deception cases,\u201d the groups say, referring to lawsuits brought by more than 70 state and local governments accusing oil companies of misleading the public about their role in the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

It is not clear if Alito has sold his stock in oil and gas companies since filing his last financial disclosure. The Guardian<\/em> has contacted the Supreme Court and Alito for comment.<\/p>\n

Justices will be required to report on their 2026 holdings next year; by then, the court may have already ruled on the Suncor case, Graves said.<\/p>

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The groups say Alito has another \u201capparent conflict of interest\u201d\u2014his relationship with the Republican billionaire donor Paul Singer. Singer founded and runs the hedge fund Elliott Investment Management, which owns more than 52 million shares of Suncor that are worth more than $2.3 billion.<\/p>\n

ProPublica<\/em>\u00a0reported\u00a0in June 2023 that Alito failed to officially disclose that he took a private jet ride to Alaska for a 2008 fishing trip paid for by Singer. Alito\u00a0defended\u00a0the trip in the Wall Street Journal<\/em>, saying ethics rules didn\u2019t require him to disclose that he took the trip and that he had no duty to recuse himself from any cases involving Singer discussed in the reporting. He wrote: \u201cProPublica<\/em> suggests that my failure to recuse in these cases created an appearance of impropriety, but that is incorrect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s letter from the watchdog groups says: \u201cAlito\u2019s decision to reverse course and participate in granting the companies\u2019 most recent petition\u2014when a finding in favor of the companies could directly and indirectly benefit both himself and his billionaire friend\u2014is an indefensible breach of ethical boundaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023, the Supreme Court adopted its\u00a0first-ever formal ethics code\u2014a response to pressure over a slew of scandals focused on some of its senior right-wing justices. It says justices should recuse themselves from cases where their \u201cimpartiality might reasonably be questioned,\u201d but allows the justices to make that decision themselves.<\/p>\n

The code has been widely\u00a0derided\u00a0as toothless by experts due to its lack of an enforcement mechanism. Unlike standards for other federal judges, it also allows justices to stay on cases if their vote is necessary to resolve the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s possible that Alito is using that rationale, [arguing] he\u2019s needed to resolve the matter of the Suncor case,\u201d said Graves. \u201cIt\u2019s really outrageous. The highest court in the country\u2026should have the highest standards, not the lowest ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, the court also\u00a0rolled out\u00a0new software to scan challengers\u2019 filings to identify potential conflicts of interest which might require justices to recuse themselves from cases. Parties before the court must list stock-ticker symbols for companies involved in cases to allow the new software to help identify conflicts.<\/p>\n

But the outcome of each climate accountability lawsuit targeting Big Oil could affect the entire industry, said Hannah Story Brown, deputy research director at Revolving Door Project. That means holdings in any oil companies should disqualify justices from weighing in on any of the lawsuits, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA blanket refusal is the only consistently ethical option for Alito when faced with any of these parallel cases,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>

Read more Farmers Are Collateral Damage in Trump\u2019s Iran War<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The justice\u2019s failure to recuse himself in cases involving the industry looks unethical, the groups say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment"],"yoast_head":"\nWatchdogs Urge Senate to Investigate Samuel Alito\u2019s Oil Stock Conflicts - Moving and Mortgage Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=60\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Watchdogs Urge Senate to Investigate Samuel Alito\u2019s Oil Stock Conflicts - Moving and Mortgage Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The justice\u2019s failure to recuse himself in cases involving the industry looks unethical, the groups say.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=60\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving and Mortgage Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-20T13:40:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/a6fb03cb081bb9dc3a2fcf16c78d967d.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=60#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=60\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6b7c79bcfd888d98f34c5413df7e81a2\"},\"headline\":\"Watchdogs Urge Senate to Investigate Samuel Alito\u2019s Oil Stock Conflicts\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-20T13:40:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=60\"},\"wordCount\":924,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=60#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/a6fb03cb081bb9dc3a2fcf16c78d967d.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Environment\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=60#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=60\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=60\",\"name\":\"Watchdogs Urge Senate to Investigate Samuel Alito\u2019s Oil Stock Conflicts - 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