Alito Speaks After Stepping Aside From Climate Case As Family Energy Inheritance Comes Into View

Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito commented after his decision to recuse himself from a landmark climate case following scrutiny over his family’s oil and gas interests.

Alito, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, recused himself from Suncor Energy v. County Commissioners of Boulder County on Tuesday — one week before oral arguments are set to commence in the closely watched climate case. Investments held by the justice and his wife Martha-Ann Alito came under scrutiny both before and after the recusal.

The conservative jurist’s absence leaves eight justices to hear the case, raising the possibility of a 4-4 split that would leave the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision allowing Boulder’s lawsuit to proceed in place.

“Taking into account the particular arguments that were made on both sides here, I thought that recusal was the prudent step,” Alito told Alito told Bloomberg Supreme Court reporter, Greg Stohr on Wednesday.

“She [Martha-Ann Alito] wants to hold on to individual stock, and so we have stock holdings in some companies in the oil and gas field,” the justice added in his comments to the outlet.

He told Stohr that his decision was a “difficult judgement call” and noted that the Supreme Court’s legal office confirmed to him that he was not required to recuse himself, Bloomberg reported. Federal law generally requires federal judges to disqualify themselves when they or their spouses have a financial interest in a party to a proceeding.

Some of the Alitos’ energy holdings trace back more than a decade. After Martha-Ann Alito’s father, Bobby Gene Bomgardner, died in 2012, the family inherited dozens of stocks, including Chevron shares, along with investment accounts and mineral rights in Oklahoma, according to a 2013 Associated Press report.

The inheritance previously prompted Alito to recuse himself from dozens of matters involving companies whose shares his family had acquired, according to the AP.

Martha-Ann Alito leased oil and gas rights covering 160 acres in Grady County, Oklahoma, to Citizen Energy III in 2022, according to The Intercept. The agreement entitled her to three-sixteenths of the proceeds from oil and gas produced there, though she held no ownership stake in Citizen.