Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito spoke out after recusing himself from a major climate liability case, saying the decision was the prudent step even though court lawyers told him he was not required to step aside.
Alito addressed the move in comments to Bloomberg one day after leaving Suncor Energy v. County Commissioners of Boulder County. He cited the specific arguments on both sides and described the choice as a difficult judgment call.
The recusal leaves eight justices to hear the dispute. That raises the chance of a 4-4 split that would leave a Colorado Supreme Court ruling in place and allow Boulder’s lawsuit against energy companies to move forward.
Alito made clear his wife’s preference played a role. Martha-Ann Alito wants to keep individual stock, including holdings in the oil and gas field. Federal law generally requires judges to step aside when they or a spouse hold a financial interest in a party. The Court’s legal office confirmed to Alito that the rule did not force his exit here.
“Taking into account the particular arguments that were made on both sides here, I thought that recusal was the prudent step,”
Alito told Bloomberg Supreme Court reporter Greg Stohr. He added that the call was not simple.
The scrutiny traces back years. Martha-Ann Alito’s father, Bobby Gene Bomgardner, died in 2012. The family inherited dozens of stocks, including Chevron shares, investment accounts, and mineral rights in Oklahoma.
Alito has since recused from dozens of matters involving companies whose shares arrived through that inheritance. In 2022, Martha-Ann Alito leased oil and gas rights covering 160 acres in Grady County, Oklahoma, to Citizen Energy III. The lease entitled her to three-sixteenths of proceeds. She held no ownership stake in the company.
Validus Energy later acquired Citizen in a deal valued at more than $2 billion. Elliott Investment Management, tied to billionaire Paul Singer, backed Validus. Regulatory filings showed Elliott held roughly 52.7 million Suncor shares worth $3.48 billion in March 2026. By June that stake had dropped to about 29.5 million shares worth $1.58 billion.
Alito does not own shares in Suncor or Exxon Mobil, the companies fighting the Boulder suit. Reuters reported he holds stock in other oil and gas firms including ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66. That distinction matters. The justice still chose to leave the case rather than invite endless attacks.
Earlier coverage noted a 2008 fishing trip to Alaska. Singer flew Alito on a private jet. Alito did not disclose the flight at the time. In a June 2023 Wall Street Journal op-ed he rejected later claims that the trip required recusal in other matters.
“I had no obligation to recuse in any of the cases that ProPublica cites. First, even if I had been aware of Mr. Singer’s connection to the entities involved in those cases, recusal would not have been required or appropriate,”
Alito wrote then. The same principle guided his latest decision: follow the actual rules, not the political noise.
Supreme Court Clerk Scott Harris informed the parties that Alito “will not continue to participate” in the case. Breitbart noted the letter gave no reason and arrived one week before the October 5 oral arguments.
The timing left little room for gamesmanship. Boulder County officials want energy companies held liable for climate costs. The companies argue such suits belong in other forums or fail on the merits. A full nine-justice bench would have decided the fight cleanly. Eight justices create the risk of deadlock.
That outcome would keep the Colorado Supreme Court’s green light for the lawsuit intact. Energy producers and the communities that rely on them would face continued litigation pressure from activist local governments.
Readers tracking other high-stakes Court actions have seen similar last-minute shifts shape outcomes, including earlier reporting on this same recusal.
Alito’s choice also fits a broader pattern of careful ethics handling that left-wing critics still refuse to accept. Robert Reich posted on X that ethics watchdogs had “uncovered” fossil fuel stockholdings and demanded Congress enact “real SCOTUS reform.” The post treated a voluntary, cautious step as proof the Court needs political overhaul.
The pressure campaign is familiar. Progressive voices treat any conservative justice’s family assets as a scandal while ignoring the plain text of the financial-interest rules. Alito’s spouse wants to hold individual stock. That is her right. The justice responded by removing himself when arguments made the appearance question closer than the legal requirement.
Fox News opinion writer Jonathan Turley observed that the recusal leaves eight justices and could produce a 4-4 tie upholding the lower court. Turley argued Alito is blazing the ethical path the Court should take, including broader use of blind trusts to avoid these fights altogether. The point lands: one justice absorbed the political cost rather than hand critics a permanent weapon.
The same Court has moved decisively on other fronts this term. It cleared Tennessee to carry out a long-delayed execution after lifting a stay, showing it can act with clarity when the law is straightforward.
Climate liability suits of this type aim to shift policy through courts instead of legislatures. Boulder’s case is one more attempt to punish lawful energy production after the fact. Alito’s absence may freeze the Colorado ruling in place for now. It does not settle the larger question of whether local governments can revise national energy policy by lawsuit.
Other recent emergency matters show how quickly outside moves can reshape dockets. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s pardon of a convicted felon effectively gutted a major immigration case before the justices could rule, proving political actors know how to short-circuit judicial review when it suits them.
Alito has faced years of targeted reporting on travel, gifts, and holdings. Each episode follows the same script: surface a personal detail, declare a crisis, then demand structural changes that would weaken an independent Court. The justice answered this latest round by doing more than the statute required.
He told Bloomberg his wife prefers individual stock in oil and gas companies. He noted the Court’s own lawyers said recusal was unnecessary. He still stepped away. That sequence undercuts the claim that conservative justices ignore ethics. It shows the opposite.
The Court continues to handle charged disputes across the board. It recently restored a Trump-era tool that lets states check voter citizenship, reinforcing basic election integrity against lower-court blocks. Separate redistricting fights keep returning as well, with the justices again taking up Missouri’s map battle even as ballots are already being cast.
None of those cases turned on family mineral rights in Oklahoma. This one did, at least in the public narrative. Alito refused to let the narrative dictate the outcome. He applied judgment, took the prudent path, and left the remaining eight justices to decide the law.
Suncor, Elliott, Validus, Citizen Energy III, and the Supreme Court Public Information Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment when the Daily Caller News Foundation sought them. The record still stands on what Alito said and did.
When a justice follows the rules and then goes further to protect the Court’s appearance, the proper response is to note the standard was met, not to demand Congress seize new power over the bench.
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