In early July 2008, Samuel Alito stood on a riverbank in a remote corner of Alaska. The Supreme Court justice was on vacation at a luxury fishing lodge that charged more than $1,000 a day, and after catching a king salmon nearly the size of his leg, Alito posed for a picture. To his left, a man stood beaming: Paul Singer, a hedge fund billionaire who has repeatedly asked the Supreme Court to rule in his favor in high-stakes business disputes.
Singer was more than a fellow angler. He flew Alito to Alaska on a private jet. If the justice chartered the plane himself, the cost could have exceeded $100,000 one way.
https://www.propublica.org/article/samuel-alito-luxury-fishing-trip-paul-singer-scotus-supreme-court
Alito seems untouchable, there are dozens of stories like this about him and his wife.
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.
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.
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.