Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito warned that a Democrat-controlled Congress could effectively “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,” he continued.

Alito made the comments while speaking to the Federalist Society.

The Hill shared further:

Alito made the comments in his return to the Federalist Society’s annual Antonin Scalia Memorial Dinner, named after the late conservative justice and held as part of the group’s annual convention each November.

This year, the convention comes a week after Democrats swept control of both houses of Congress. Alito made no reference to the midterm elections or the pending change in power during his remarks, but Democrats have eyed using Congress’s power of the purse as leverage against the conservative-majority court before.

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Two of Alito’s colleagues — Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett — made a rare visit to Capitol Hill over the summer to advocate for increasing the judiciary’s budget and increased security funding in the wake of rising threat levels.

Alito told the crowd of more than 1,000 conservative lawyers on Thursday that the judiciary is the least powerful branch and it is “vulnerable” to Congress and the executive. Still, the justice warned that judges can overstep.

“So, it is important to preserve the independence of the judiciary,” Alito said, according to the outlet.

“If that is eliminated, then the Constitution as adopted in 1789 will no longer be the same,” he added.

Rumors have circulated that Alito may retire from the Supreme Court during President Trump’s second term.

With Democrats taking the Senate majority, Alito and Clarence Thomas have faced renewed questions about retirement.

“Democrats’ Senate takeover could leave President Trump’s Supreme Court legacy facing a major threat — and put two of the court’s oldest conservatives in a difficult position. Justices Clarence Thomas, 78, and Samuel Alito, 76, face renewed questions about retirement as Republicans prepare to lose control of the Senate in January,” Fox News wrote.

“Alito told Fox News he has no plans to retire, while legal experts warn the GOP’s shrinking window could leave conservative justices with few options for years to come,” it added.

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The Supreme Court currently has a 6-3 conservative majority, with Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas among its most senior conservative members.

Efforts by lawmakers to use the court’s budget as leverage are not new. In 2023, a group of Democratic senators proposed withholding $10 million in Supreme Court funding until the justices adopted stricter ethics requirements.

The court later introduced its first formal code of conduct, though critics argued it lacked meaningful enforcement mechanisms.

Alito also took aim Thursday at lower-court judges who have issued orders blocking presidential actions in recent years, accusing some of them of going too far in their use of judicial authority.

“They are dedicated and they are skillful, but they’re not perfect and they make mistakes,” the justice said. “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,” he added. “the hand grenade is the last dangerous. But that is not to say that it is not dangerous.”

 

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