Senate Judiciary Chair On Serving A Subpoena To Samuel Alito: ‘It’s Not Going To Happen’

WASHINGTON ― Progressive groups and legal experts have increasingly demanded that Senate Democrats do more to hold Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito accountable after reports of multiple controversies and apparent ethical breaches, which include revelations that flags flown at two of his residences were like ones insurrectionists carried as they attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Some have urged Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, to use more hardball tactics, like subpoenaing Alito to testify. More than two dozen organizations recently pressed Durbin to launch an investigation specifically into Alito’s compliance with federal law and ethical standards.

But Durbin said Wednesday that the committee won’t be doing those things.

“Quite honestly, subpoenaing a Supreme Court justice is not in the cards,” he told HuffPost. “It’s not going to happen.”

The Illinois Democrat said he wished that the progressives demanding this “would consider the actual rules of the Senate and the Senate Judiciary Committee.”

The math simply isn’t there to go this route, he said. In the committee, it would take either a bipartisan vote or a majority vote to subpoena Alito. The votes definitely aren’t there for a bipartisan vote, and it’s questionable if they’re there for a majority, he said. Beyond that, even if enough committee members agreed to subpoena Alito, it would take 60 votes in the full Senate to approve it. The votes aren’t there for that either, he said.

Durbin said there wasn’t much senators could do to enforce a subpoena against a Supreme Court justice anyway.

“If they tear it up in front of me, there’s little I can do other than say, ‘You’re missing an opportunity if you have a story