NBC reports
In the interviews, the conservative justice pushed back on claims of ethics violations and questioned whether Congress could legislate on the issue.
WASHINGTON — Conservative Justice Samuel Alito on Friday refused to step aside from an upcoming tax case being argued at the Supreme Court, rejecting a request from Senate Democrats.
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was among those who had questioned Alito’s participation because one of the lawyers involved in the case, David Rivkin, recently interviewed Alito in two articles published in The Wall Street Journal.
“There is no valid reason for my recusal in this case,” Alito wrote in a statement issued by the court.
In the interviews, Alito pushed back on claims of ethics violations and questioned whether Congress could legislate on the issue.
Separately, Rivkin represents the conservative legal activist Leonard Leo, whom the Judiciary Committee has sought testimony from on ethics questions.
The case in question, Moore v. U.S., concerns a novel constitutional question on whether people can be forced to pay taxes on a stake in a foreign-owned company even if they have not derived any income from it.
Rivkin is one of the lawyers facing off against the federal government in the case, brought by Charles and Kathleen Moore, who invested in an India-base company.
Alito wrote that Durbin’s argument that he should recuse because of Rivkin’s role was “unsound” in part because Rivkin was participating in the interviews as a journalist, not an advocate.
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