Supreme Court Justice Alito sold Bud Light owner's stock amid boycott

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito sold shares of beer giant Anheuser-Busch as conservatives were ditching the Bud Light brewer over its partnership with a transgender social media influencer.

On the same day Alito sold Anheuser-Busch, he then bought the same amount of stock in Molson Coors, a company with a history of facing political boycotts of its own, the filing shows.

The transactions have bred fresh accusations that Alito, one of the high court’s six conservatives, is engaging in or aligning with partisan politics, despite a recently adopted code of conduct that directs the justices to “refrain from political activity.”

Alito sold between $1,000 and $15,000 of AB InBev’s stock on Aug. 14, 2023, according to a financial disclosure filing for the justice that was recently made visible through a federal judicial database.

The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Alito’s transaction report or the timing of his stock activity.

At the time of Alito’s stock sale, Anheuser-Busch was still grappling with a monthslong campaign to boycott Bud Light after the company partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in an April 2023 social media campaign.

The partnership threw the world’s largest beermaker to the center of a broader fight over transgender rights and acceptance in the U.S. — and stoked a backlash from both conservatives and supporters of Mulvaney, who was reportedly stalked and targeted with death threats amid the controversy.

In May 2023, Modelo replaced Bud Light as the top-selling beer in the U.S. Data from around that time showed sales of Bud Light had dropped nearly 25% year over year.

AB InBev nevertheless reported better-than-expected profits in the second fiscal