US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito reportedly gained up to $2.9m from his fossil fuel interests between 2005 and 2024, according to a new review of financial disclosures. The analysis, conducted by the non-profit advocacy group Court Accountability, found that even at the lowest estimate, Alito gained almost $400,000 from these interests since joining the high court in 2005.
These findings emerge as the Supreme Court prepares to hear a case on 5 October, where oil companies Suncor Energy and Exxon are asking justices to rule that federal law prevents subnational governments from suing fossil fuel producers over climate-warming effects. Court Accountability and other groups have called for a Senate committee to investigate Alito, who is reportedly the only Supreme Court justice with holdings in energy companies, and have urged him to recuse himself. These calls have been rejected by Alito and the court.
Supreme Court ethics rules focus on investments in companies directly named in court cases. A Supreme Court spokesperson stated in May that Alito is not required to recuse himself from the Suncor lawsuit because his holdings do not include Suncor or ExxonMobil directly. However, Lisa Graves, co-founder of Court Accountability, argues that Alito’s oil-tied wealth provides grounds to question his impartiality in cases affecting the broader fossil fuel sector.
Alito’s financial disclosures indicate his reported assets, excluding personal property, grew from approximately $1.1m in 2005 to between $3.4m and $8.4m by 2024. Most of his fossil fuel gains reportedly came from a property in Grady County, Oklahoma, where his wife holds a mineral interest. Alito also disclosed obtaining an ExxonMobil stock bequest valued between $100,000 and $250,000 in 2004, though he appears to have since sold this stock.
Alito has a history of voting in favour of fossil fuel interests, including dissenting in the 2007 case Massachusetts v Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and joining the majority in the 2022 West Virginia v EPA decision. He has recused himself from other environmental cases, including a January lawsuit involving ConocoPhillips, a company in which he owns stock.