As is his long-standing custom, the justice asked for and was granted an extension; now all nine sitting justices’ disclosures are out

Justice Alito remains the leader in stock ownership at the Supreme Court, holding a stake in 28 companies at the end of 2023, according to his financial disclosure report released Friday.

Also of note, Alito amended prior reports to note the existence of a loan he took out in 2015, and he received one gift and no reimbursements for travel last year.

Stocks:
Alito sold AB InBev and Johnson & Johnson in 2023, though maintained shares in Kenvue, a J&J spinoff. (His complete list of stocks over the years is posted here, with some of his 2024 holdings not confirmed but listed due to recusals in petitions involving those companies.)

Alito recused in 20 petitions at the cert. stage last year due to his stocks and has recused in 10 petitions and one merits case this year for that reason. The only other justice to own individual stocks is Chief Justice Roberts. He only has shares in two companies, and his most recent stock-based recusal occurred in 2021.

Amendments:
In a single sentence at the end of his report, Alito “amended” prior reports by noting the existence and value of a loan he secured in 2015 from Edward Jones. The loan was noted in his 2015, 2020 and 2021 reports but not in his 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022 reports.

The justice has to date paid off between 94 and 99 percent of it: the debt that was once valued between $250,001 and $500,000 was, at the end of 2023, under $15,000. The acquisition of the loan nearly coincides with the purchase of his New Jersey beach home, which, according to New York Times, was in 2014, though it’s unconfirmed if that’s what the loan was for.

Gifts and reimbursements:
The one gift Alito reported — “concert tickets” valued at $900, though which concert was not mentioned — was given to him by a German noblewoman named Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, who court-watchers will remember visited Alito and Justice Kavanaugh at the Supreme Court in 2019 with Brian Brown, the head of an anti-LGBT group, National Organization for Marriage. The visit occurred on Oct. 29; two months prior to that, NOM filed a brief in three cases opposing the expansion of Title VII, with arguments occurring on Oct. 8.

“No matter the identity of the patron — whether it be a German princess, Queen Bey or the king of Dallas real estate — the justices should not be accepting expensive gifts,” Fix the Court’s Gabe Roth said. “That’s true for any public servant but especially for ones who are paid several times the median U.S. salary, a sum that’s guaranteed every year until they die.”

Alito was not reimbursed for any trips he took in 2023. According to press reports, the only time we know for certain he left the D.C. area last year was to visit the Wall Street Journal editorial board in New York in “early July.” It’s possible he paid for the trip himself, that security drove him or that the Journal paid but the cost was less than $480, the gift- and reimbursement-reporting threshold.

It’s worth noting that despite what he said at the meeting — “I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it. No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court — period” — Alito has, on account of a law Congress enacted in 1978, filed an annual disclosure report every year since joining the bench in 1990.

“In order to conduct basic oversight of government officials, financial disclosure reports are both ‘necessary’ and ‘proper,'” Roth added. “Based solely on his annual disclosure filings, it would seem as if Justice Alito agrees there is, in fact, a role for Congress to play in regulating the Court.”