New Actor: Watchdogs Urge Senate to Investigate Alito

A coalition of environmental and accountability groups asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate Justice Samuel Alito’s financial ties to the oil and gas industry. The letter says he is the only sitting justice who owns individual energy stocks and flags his handling of recusals in industry cases. The request puts a formal inquiry before senators into whether his stock holdings and recusal decisions comply with judicial ethics rules.

The groups cite Alito’s 2024 disclosure showing $60,007 to $245,000 in shares of ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66 and five other energy companies, plus up to $100,000 in a Vanguard fund where ExxonMobil is a top holding. They argue those stakes should bar him from the climate lawsuit brought by Boulder and from similar state cases accusing oil companies of deceiving the public. The letter also points to his ties to Republican donor Paul Singer, whose hedge fund holds more than 52 million Suncor shares valued at over $2.3 billion.

The filing notes that Alito did not step aside when the court agreed in February to hear ExxonMobil and Suncor’s bid to block state and local climate lawsuits. In 2023 he had recused when the court turned away an earlier appeal in the same Colorado case, issued the same day the court also rejected similar petitions involving ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66. In January he also withdrew days before arguments in a Louisiana coastal-damage suit after parties were told he owned ConocoPhillips stock.

AI-synthesized from multiple reported sources