Members of the SCOTUS are crooked and on the take.

Alito said that he was invited to fly on Singer’s plane shortly before the trip and that the seat “​​would have otherwise been vacant.” He defended his failure to report the trip to the public, writing that justices “commonly interpreted” the disclosure requirements to not include “accommodations and transportation for social events.”

This is such an insane defense. Yeah, this casual acquaintance of yours just got you a $100k personal flight for the giggles.

When the Thomas bribery story came out, Elie Mystal said something like, “You’re telling us that this justice can handle the most complex legal cases but doesn’t understand ethics laws?” Same applies here. They didn’t think they would get caught.

That is quite a thorough and damning article. It's infuriating how openly corrupt some members of the supreme court are. Even more infuriating that they get away with it, and that almost certainly won't change because the wealthy own this country.

Alito did put out his own statement. Unfortunately it's on WSJ and thoroughly paywalled: https://www.wsj.com/articles/propublica-misleads-its-readers-alito-gifts-disclosure-alaska-singer-23b51eda

Edit: non-paywalled summary of Alito's stonewalling https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4060023-alito-propublica-report-on-luxury-vacation-misleading/

The really telling thing is, I skipped this article the first time because, "Yeah, we know, this isn't news." Took me another look to catch that this was Alito, not Thomas.

Wonderful journalism, wow. I will say that it did take too long to read that Leonard Leo planned/coordinated the whole trip. This Supreme Court is so fully out in the open fucked.

In a legitimate society with a sliver of integrity this would not be tolerated.

Corruption on full display … with zero consequences.

Alito seems untouchable, there are dozens of stories like this about him and his wife.