Justice Alito Says Recusal in Suncor Energy v. Boulder County a “Difficult Judgment Call”

Greg Stohr of Bloomberg reports on an interview with Justice Alito explaining the justice’s last-minute decision to recuse in Suncor Energy v. Boulder County, the major climate change preemption case the Supreme Court will hear on Monday. According to the story, Justice Alito said it was a “difficult judgment call.”

From Stohr’s report:

Although Alito took part when the court agreed to hear the case in February, he said Wednesday he decided to back out after looking more deeply at the case in the run-up to the argument. A coalition of watchdog and environmental groups had called on Alito to disqualify himself.

“Taking into account the particular arguments that were made on both sides here, I thought that recusal was the prudent step,” Alito said.

Federal law requires judges to step aside if they own stock in one of the parties to a legal fight but doesn’t impose a similar restriction for shares in companies that could be affected.

“Under that rule, I was not required to be recused, and I asked our legal office, as is my custom on any case where there’s an arguable recusal issue, to give me their opinion on whether I was required to recuse, and they said, ‘No.'”

The story also indicates why Justice Alito holds on to individual energy stocks, despite the recusal risk.

Alito said his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, inherited the energy shares. “She wants to hold on to individual stock, and so we have stock holdings in some companies in the oil and gas field,” he said.