Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is in hot water and facing intense pushback for comments he made earlier this week about a Black Santa, the KKK, and the Ashley Madison dating site.
According to The Hill, the controversial remarks came during a hearing on the case “303 Creative v. Elenis,” which asks whether a Colorado web designer can refuse service to a same-sex couple. During the arguments, Alito, the conservative justice who authored the summer ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, asked Colorado Solicitor General Eric Olson if a mall Santa Claus would be required to take a picture with a child dressed up in a KKK outfit under the Colorado law.
“So if there’s a Black Santa at the other end of the mall and he doesn’t want to have his picture taken with a child who’s dressed up in a Ku Klux Klan outfit, that Black Santa has to do that?” Alito asked Eric Olson, Colorado’s solicitor general, who is defending the state law at issue in the case.
“No, because Ku Klux Klan outfits are not protected characteristics under public accommodation laws,” Olson responded.
The comment came after Black Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pondered whether it would be legal for a mall Santa to refuse to take pictures with children who are not white. A few seconds later, Alito cut off liberal Justice Elena Kagan adding, “You do see a lot of Black children in Ku Klux Klan outfits, right? All the time. All the time.”
The Desert News reported Alito’s comment has received numerous rebukes from Black political advocates, including former NAACP Legal Defense Fund President Sherrilyn Ifill, who tweeted that the comments were “really upsetting.”
Earlier in the proceedings, Alito suggested Kagan was familiar with the Ashley Madison dating website for people who want to have extramarital affairs.
During the proceeding, Alito asked Olson if an unmarried Jewish person who wanted a Jewish photographer to take a picture for the website JDate would be required to do so.
“Jdate … is a dating service, I gather, for Jewish people,” Alito said.