Alito calls Trump rhetoric offensive while noting surge in emergency appeals

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said in an Associated Press interview published Oct. 6, 2026, that he is "not pleased" with President Donald Trump's rhetoric about the court, his first public response. "Everybody in this country has the right to criticize what we do. The substance of their criticism can be quite harsh. If we deserve it, then that's fine. But rhetoric is a different story," Alito said. He called related claims "offensive" and said he decides every case on the merits whether the president is Trump, Biden, Obama or anyone else. In a Time interview, Trump singled out Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, saying "I gave them the position of a lifetime, and they vote against me often" and calling them "a shell of their original selves." Alito, 76, is promoting his book So Ordered, out the same day, and told Bloomberg he will stay through the term ending in June. Emergency appeals are rising toward the volume of regular-process cases; Alito sees little the court can do to reverse that. In a Washington Times interview he said he and his clerks have not used AI for court work. He joked with Adam Unikowsky about letting Claude decide a case after it predicted an 8-1 loss; the ruling was unanimous against Unikowsky. Alito called AI's capabilities "pretty formidable."