Alito’s Theory of Ethics and Living Well

I'm no lawyer, but I can spot a precedent when I see one!

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was quick to put his own spin on the recent ProPublica story about his unethical behavior — so quick, in fact, he began his spinning before the story was actually published.

It made no difference, Alito’s defense was ridiculously feeble whether it came before or after the facts of his luxury billionaire-funded trip to Alaska were revealed.

In case you missed my earlier post, Alito’s most absurd defense of accepting and not reporting free travel on a private jet was that the seat was just sitting there unused anyway, so he might as well go ahead and use it.

Which led me to think about other ways the conservative justice’s newly-minted Theory of Ethics could be used.

Probably the most fun part of creating this animation was coming up with the legal rationalizations and making them look like case law.

The first one — about the seat on the private jet — was written by Justice Alito, the rest were me expanding on his novel legal theory. (I’m not a lawyer but I play one in cartoons.)

Sure, this is satire — for now — but I wouldn’t be surprised if Alito used some of these very same arguments the next time his (or Clarence Thomas’) unethical conduct is revealed.

Remember, if you want to see this cartoon take shape from the germ of an idea to a script, then turn into a storyboard, caricature and animation, you can go behind-the-scenes with me here.

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