posed as a Christian conservative to take an undercover recording of at the Supreme Court Historical Society's annual dinner — and it shows he holds a highly Manichean view of his political opponents.
As reported by Rolling Stone, Alito argued that compromise with the political left in the United States was impossible given what he said was a vast gulf between America's political ideologies.
The recording shows that Windsor prompted Alito with a leading statement intended to elicit sympathy with the idea that compromise between left and right in America is simply unworkable.
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"I don’t know that we can negotiate with the left in the way that needs to happen for the polarization to end,” Windsor told him. “I think that it’s a matter of, like, winning.”
“I think you’re probably right,” Alito said. “On one side or the other — one side or the other is going to win. I don’t know. I mean, there can be a way of working — a way of living together peacefully, but it’s difficult, you know, because there are differences on fundamental things that really can’t be compromised. They really can’t be compromised. So it’s not like you are going to split the difference.”
In another instance, Windsor got Alito to seemingly agree about the need for the United States to return to its purported roots as a Christian nation.
"People in this country who believe in God have got to keep fighting for that — to return our country to a place of godliness," she said.
“I agree with you. I agree with you,” he replied.
The answers given by Alito differ significantly with ones given by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who pushed back on the notion that America was founded as a Christian nation.
"Presented with the claim that America is a 'Christian nation' and that the Supreme Court should be 'guiding us in that path,' Roberts again disagrees, citing the perspectives of 'Jewish and Muslim friends,' before asserting: 'It’s not our job to do that. It’s our job to decide the cases the best we can,'" writes Rolling Stone.
