‘What if I’d said something temperate or reasonable?’

Follow this authorAlexandra Petri's opinions

“I would never impose my religion on others.”

“It isn’t the role of the Supreme Court to legislate from the bench.”

“No, I would not accept a seat on a private jet, even if it was already going to the destination and so the seat would be just going to waste otherwise.”

Alito went on: “Why, just thinking about this made me so stressed that Martha-Ann had to read me my Obergefell dissent to calm me down.” Alito beamed. “In it, I complained that ‘those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes, but if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers and schools’ — something I printed under my name, publicly, and was proud of, and have repeated in speeches to the Federalist Society!”

Advertisement

Alito also worried that footage might surface from a recent party at which he recalled a guest saying Donald Trump was a wonderful man who deserved both unlimited power and to be the next president, during which Alito apparently remained silent.

“But I was nodding!” he insisted. “I was nodding! Don’t worry!”

So far, the justice has been lucky. But Alito urged anyone who might in the future question troublesome private remarks to go and study all his public speeches and published opinions.

“I am who I’ve always been in public,” Alito said. “Not some impartial justice in a........

© Washington Post