Alito: Recusing from cases involving former employees, colleagues, and long-time acquaintances would 'distort' the Supreme Court's work

• In mid-2023, Justice Samuel Alito met twice with a lawyer who later wrote two op-eds defending him.
• The attorney, David Rivkin Jr., is closely connected to a case the court agreed to hear in June.
• On Friday, Alito said he's refusing to recuse himself from the upcoming case.

In an official court statement published Friday, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alitodeclined to recuse himself from an upcoming case after he met with a lawyer involved in it for hours as part of a Wall Street Journal op-ed.