Supreme Court of the United States
Moore v. United States
September 8, 2023
Summary
This document is a Statement of Justice Alito issued with the Court's September 8, 2023 order in Moore v. United States, a case on certiorari from the Ninth Circuit, responding to Senator Durbin's request that he recuse because attorney David B. Rivkin, Jr. co-authored two Wall Street Journal articles based on interviews with him. Justice Alito concluded there is no valid reason for recusal: Rivkin participated in the interviews as a journalist rather than an advocate, the case was never mentioned, and his involvement was disclosed in the second article. Invoking the principle that a Justice has a duty to sit absent a sound reason to recuse, he declined to recuse. The order itself granted only petitioners' motion to dispense with printing the joint appendix; no merits issue was decided.