Alito interrupts Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to crack ‘joke’ about Black kids in KKK costumes

Rebekah Sager

Daily Kos Staff

Monday December 05, 2022 · 1:08 PM PST

2022/12/05 · 13:08

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 07: 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. The Supreme Court has begun a new term after Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was officially added to the bench in September. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) — Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito poses for an official portrait at the East Conference Room of the Supreme Court building on Oct. 7, 2022 in Washington, D.C.

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The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case that uses “free speech” and personal religious beliefs as justifications to discriminate against LGBTQ Americans. Justice Samuel Alito clearly didn’t take the case seriously as he was overheard making a nonsensical joke about Black children in KKK costumes as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson attempted to clarify a hypothetical.

The case is titled 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, and at the center of it is Lorie Smith, a Colorado-based web designer who argues that as a Christian, the wedding website business she wants to found (someday in the mythical future) will be crushed if she has to include LGBTQ customers.

As Daily Kos’ Joan McCarter writes, this case is just another part “in the anti-marriage equality crusade of the far-right, specifically the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).”

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According to The New Civil Rights Movement, Alito’s comments came after Jackson outlined in detail a scenario in which a photographer would be recreating a Christmas scene from the 1940s in sepia tones with Santa Claus and (exclusively) white children to make it historically accurate.

Jackson then asked Kristen Waggoner, the ADF’s attorney, if the photographer would have to admit to refusing to take photos of Black children with Santa. Would that be legal, she asked.

McCarter writes that Waggoner “refused or failed to give a clear answer.”

Then things got surreal. And Alito, who seemed to completely misunderstand Jackson’s analogy, commented about a hypothetical Santa who didn’t want his photo taken with Black children.

“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 is dressed up in a Ku Klux Klan outfit, now does that Black Santa have to do that,” Alito asked.

To which the Colorado Solicitor General Eric Olson responded, “No, because Ku Klux Klan outfits are not protected characteristics under public accommodation laws.”

Then Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, “And presumably … that would be the same Ku Klux Klan outfit, regardless whether if the child was Black or white or any other characteristic.”

But the inane exchange didn’t end there.

With thousands of Americans tuned in, Alito joked, “You do see a lot of Black children in Ku Klux Klan outfits all the time.”

Justice Alito jokes with Justice Kagan that, "You do see a lot of Black children in Ku Klux Klan outfits all the time," during oral arguments in a free speech case. pic.twitter.com/QoCfDVhuEQ
— The Recount (@therecount) December 5, 2022

And then social media chimed in.

So many befuddled assumptions here. KKK outfit hypothetical aside, in Alito's mind, a white kid couldn't possibly visit a black Santa, I reckon. Ol boy's lost. https://t.co/iWDonHWK1E
— Jeffrey Wright (@jfreewright) December 5, 2022

Justice Alito literally just compared a white kid in a KKK outfit taking a picture with a black Santa (being offensive) to a gay couple wanting a website designed for them by a religious bigot.
These people are not wise.
Not above us.
They deserve no respect or restraint.
— Southpaw Leftist (@SouthpawLeftist) December 5, 2022

Still not over Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito saying that a religious business owner having to serve gay couples is like a Black business owner having to serve someone dressed in a KKK hood. truly vile
— Susan Rinkunas (@sueonthetown) December 5, 2022

“Justice” Alito comparing LGBTQ+ families to the KKK is a despicable new low for him and the Supreme Court.

He is deliberately demonizing LGBTQ+ Americans and mainstreaming the Klan with a false equivalence far more sinister than gaslighting — it’s criminalizing homosexuality. https://t.co/oPBC7J9vqW
— Christine Pelosi (@sfpelosi) December 5, 2022

Alito interrupts Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to crack ‘joke’ about Black kids in KKK costumes

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