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Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito recently laid out three principles Americans must cling to to ensure the integrity of the republic: freedom of speech, religious liberty and racial equality.
“I’m not saying we’re entering the dark age, but these are things that we have to preserve no matter what the atmosphere is in the country or the world at the time,” Alito said during a fireside chat with Mollie Hemingway, editor-in-chief at the Federalist, which followed the Antonin Scalia Memorial Dinner at the 2026 National Lawyer’s Convention in Washington D.C.
The remarks come on the heels of the blue tsunami of the 2026 midterms, with Republicans losing 42 House seats and eight Senate seats, with the Alaska U.S. Senate race still uncalled. Democrats are set to take control of Congress with eight lawmakers backed by the Democratic Socialists of America. Both incoming and returning members have pressed for investigations and subpoenas targeting President Donald Trump and his administration.
United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito poses for an official portrait at the East Conference Room of the Supreme Court building on October 7, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
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Alito’s remarks also come amid the ongoing Iran war, which has destabilized oil supply chains across the globe, causing the price of goods and gas to jump.
The 76-year-old jurist said preserving freedom of speech is paramount, warning that “you cannot have Democratic self-fulfillment if you cannot have robust free speech.”
“Even speech that is hurtful to some of the people who hear what is being said,” Alito said.
He also stressed the importance of freedom of religion, even as the Supreme Court is set to rule on at least two major cases this term centered on religious freedom: St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy and Grand v. City of University Heights.
President Donald J. Trump greets Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Samuel Alito as he departs from a ceremony to swear in Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in the Oval Office at the White House on Tuesday, July 23, 2019, in Washington. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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“I think that we have placed religious liberty on a sounder footing than it was on 20, 25 years ago,” Alito said.
“Religious liberty is central to human dignity, and in a society that is as religiously diverse as this country, we’ve got people who adhere to practically every religion that exists in the world,” Alito continued. “We are not going to be able to get along, I think, amicably, productively, if we don’t respect everybody’s right to follow whatever religion they want, or for people of faith, they’re also free to do that.”
“That’s essential,” Alito said.
He rounded off his trifecta by saying that America must maintain racial equality, declaring it “essential for our pluralistic society.”
Supreme Court Associate Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas wait to leave the stage after the inauguration ceremonies in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2025. (Chip Somodevilla/AFP via Getty Images)
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“That is the principle that Dr. Martin Luther King famously articulated in his speech at the Lincoln Memorial, where he said he looked forward to the day when children would be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin,” Alito said.
“If we don’t hold to that principle, then I think the society is going to start to come apart,” Alito said.
The Supreme Court agreed in October to hear Association for Education Fairness v. Montgomery County Board of Education this term, a challenge brought by parents of Asian American students alleging that a Maryland school district’s admissions policies unlawfully discriminate despite appearing race-neutral.
Alito mentioned the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ended affirmative action in college admissions, as among the most consequential rulings from the Supreme Court in the past few decades.
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Alito’s discussion comes as questions swirl about his possible plans to retire. In a Bloomberg article published after the midterms, Alito said that the Democrats’ sweep did not change his plans to stay on the Supreme Court.
Alito, nominated by President George W. Bush, has served on the bench since 2006.
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“With those, with those 20 years, I jumped to 42nd in the the list of all-time service by Supreme Court justices,” Alito said.