Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito blamed his wife for his oil and gas stock holdings after rethinking his recusal from a major climate case, pointing to her once again amid an outcry from left-leaning environmental groups.
Alito gave his first public explanation for stepping aside Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg News reporter Greg Stohr.
The Supreme Court had announced the recusal Monday without giving a reason, Bloomberg reported. The case asks whether Boulder, Colorado, can sue Exxon Mobil and Suncor Energy for the costs of coping with climate change.
Samuel Alito told Bloomberg that his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, inherited the energy shares.
"She wants to hold on to individual stock, and so we have stock holdings in some companies in the oil and gas field," Alito said.
Those holdings include shares of oil companies ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66, plus five other energy firms, his financial disclosure report shows, according to NBC News. He does not own stock in Exxon or Suncor, the network reported.
The left-leaning groups that repeatedly called for his recusal argued those companies could benefit if the court throws out the Boulder lawsuit, because they face similar climate suits across the country, NBC reported.
Samuel Alito earlier told NBC News, through a court spokeswoman, that he didn't need to step aside.
"Justice Alito does not have a financial interest in any party" in the case, the spokeswoman said, adding that the court's legal counsel had advised him that "his recusal is not required."
In May, a coalition of watchdog groups asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate whether his refusal to step aside violated federal law, The New Republic reported.
Samuel Alito told Bloomberg he ultimately stepped aside despite the court counsel's advice, calling it a "difficult judgment call."
"Justice Alito's recusal ... is the right decision, and one he should have made from the start," Alexandra Nagy, organizing director of the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, said in a statement to NBC News.
"Stay for Justice Alito (again) throwing his spouse Martha under the bus," Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote on Bluesky as he shared the Bloomberg story.
Samuel Alito also pointed to his wife in 2024, after The New York Times reported that an upside-down American flag, a symbol adopted by supporters of President Donald Trump contesting the 2020 election, had flown outside the couple's Virginia home on Jan. 17, 2021.
"I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag," Samuel Alito said in an emailed statement to the Times at the time. "It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor's use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs."
"Isn't your partner supposed to have your back, be your biggest supporter, the person you vowed to have and hold for better or worse?" journalist and author Vicki Larson wrote in a 2024 essay about the flag episode.
With Samuel Alito out, the court's eight remaining justices could split 4-4, leaving major legal questions unresolved.
The oil and gas industry is hoping for a broad ruling that would keep cases like Boulder's out of state courts, potentially saving it billions of dollars in damages, the network reported.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in the case on Oct. 5.
