Even Conservative Supreme Court Justice Criticizes Trump: "Concerned About Remarks About the Supreme Court as a Whole and Individual Justices"

[Financial News] U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized SCOTUS and individual justices, prompting a pointed rebuke from conservative Justice Samuel Alito.
Justice Samuel Alito said on Fox News on the 4th (local time), "I am concerned overall about the rising level of public rhetoric, as well as remarks made by people in important positions about the Supreme Court as a whole and individual justices."
Alito made the remarks in response to public criticism of SCOTUS for blocking key Trump administration policies and for including justices appointed by President Trump among the majority in those rulings.
The three justices Trump appointed during his first term were Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Along with Chief Justice John Roberts, Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas, they bring the number of justices classified as conservative to six.
However, even with six of the nine justices considered conservative, SCOTUS has not sided with President Trump in major rulings, including a February ruling that reciprocal tariffs were unlawful, a June ruling recognizing birthright citizenship and a September ruling that mail-in voting could not be restricted.
Trump, in particular, criticized the three justices he appointed, saying they were "nothing more than hollow shells of what they originally were." In a recent interview with Time, he said, "I gave them lifetime appointments, and they often vote against me," expressing regret over the appointments.
Alito said, "I block all of that—those remarks about SCOTUS and the justices—from my mind. I trust my colleagues will do the same," adding, "I am concerned about the long-term impact it could have on the stature of SCOTUS."
Alito pointed out that U.S. presidents, including Trump, have increasingly sought to bypass a Congress locked in intense partisan confrontation by relying on executive orders or interpreting laws and regulations, leading to a rise in lawsuits and emergency applications challenging those actions.
Alito said, "Presidents of both parties have grown increasingly frustrated by their inability to persuade Congress to adopt their legislative agendas. So they have tried to do many things by using unilateral powers: issuing executive orders, creating new rules or reinterpreting existing laws and regulations."
He continued, "Those efforts have increasingly faced swift and forceful countersuits. In 2025, there were more than 50 emergency applications in major civil cases, and there were a similar number of merits cases over a comparable period."
Asked by the host about calls, led mainly by left-wing groups, for reforms including increasing the number of justices and imposing term or age limits on them, Alito replied, "I am concerned."
He criticized such demands as "organized efforts to threaten SCOTUS and its justices and influence us to decide cases differently from how we have decided them up to now."

[email protected] Lee Seok-woo, international affairs specialist Reporter