Justice Samuel Alito announced Monday he would be recusing himself from a major Supreme Court climate change case a week before oral arguments, after facing pressure from left-wing groups to do so.
Alito, who has served on the Supreme Court since 2006 after being appointed by then-President George W. Bush, did not offer an explanation for his recusal, with the Clerk of the Supreme Court Scott Harris saying in a letter posted to the high court’s docket that the justice “has determined that he will not continue to participate in this case.”
The upcoming arguments in Suncor Energy v. County Commissioners of Boulder County will see the justices decide whether a lawsuit brought by Boulder County, Colorado, seeking to hold oil companies accountable for their alleged role in global climate change, may move forward, with major ramifications for similar lawsuits that climate activists and Democratic-led jurisdictions have attempted to bring against oil companies.
Alito’s recusal means oral arguments next Monday will include only the other eight justices, leaving open the possibility of a 4-4 deadlock. If the high court comes to a 4-4 split, the lower court’s ruling would remain in place, and it would be as if the Supreme Court never took up the case for oral arguments, a scenario which occurred in May 2025 when Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from a case over a Catholic charter school seeking admission into the Oklahoma charter school system.
Alito previously recused himself from another climate change lawsuit last term, citing his financial interest in ConocoPhillips, the parent corporation for Burlington Resources Oil and Gas Company, which remained a party to the case Chevron USA v. Plaquemines Parish.
Similar to his recusal announcement on Monday, Alito announced his recusal from the Chevron case days before oral arguments. Alito explained that, at the time, he was informed that ConocoPhillips had fully withdrawn from the case, but later learned the company was still part of the lawsuit in the lower court, so he elected to recuse himself. In the Chevron case, the Supreme Court later ruled 8-0 in favor of the oil companies’ bid to move a lawsuit seeking damages for coastline damage caused by oil production in Louisiana from state court to federal court.
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Left-wing legal groups had pointed to Alito’s past rationale as a reason for him to recuse himself from the Suncor case, something he had resisted doing until Monday. Justice Elena Kagan has similarly received pressure from right-wing legal groups to recuse herself from the Suncor case after she wrote the forward to the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, which included a chapter on climate science that critics claim addresses issues in dispute in the upcoming case. Kagan has declined to recuse herself, telling senators during a hearing over the summer she did not review that section of the manual and did not reference climate science in her foreword.
The Supreme Court will open its upcoming term next Monday with oral arguments in the Suncor Energy case, with oral arguments in a variety of cases continuing through the end of April 2027. The high court is expected to issue rulings in all cases, including the Suncor case, by the end of June 2027.