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Justice Samuel Alito has recused himself from Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, the climate liability case the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday as the first argument of its 2026-27 term.
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Shop NowSupreme Court Clerk Scott Harris informed the parties’ lawyers of the recusal in a letter on Monday, according to Fox News.
The letter gave no explanation, and no reason has been made public.
The case asks whether Boulder, Colorado, can use state-law tort claims to sue oil and gas companies over their alleged contribution to climate change.
The case has drawn scrutiny from Republicans, who argue Colorado officials are using the court system to get their environmental agenda enacted.
It is not the first time Alito has stepped away from a related dispute.
In January, he recused himself from Chevron USA Inc. v. Plaquemines Parish, a Louisiana coastal erosion case, because he owned stock in ConocoPhillips, the parent company of Burlington Resources Oil and Gas Company, a party in that litigation.
Carrie Severino, president of JCN, said Alito “does not take his duty to sit lightly.”
“We do not know why he recused himself, as the reason has not been made public, but I do not expect his recusal to ultimately change the outcome of Suncor v. Boulder,” she said.
Steve Cox, a former Alaska attorney general who now serves as counsel to Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, described the wider wave of climate suits as coordinated public nuisance litigation in state courts, designed to reach policy results “without having to go through their democratically elected officials.”
O.H. Skinner, executive director of the Alliance for Consumers and a former Arizona solicitor general, said: “It’s not a fight about climate change. It’s not a fight about climate science.”
He also argued that public pressure on the justices over recusal is counterproductive, saying it “doesn’t help the court when they don’t have their full complement.”
Recusal pressure has not been limited to Alito. Justice Elena Kagan has faced calls to step aside from the case because she wrote the foreword to the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence.
That manual included a climate science chapter that was later criticized by Congress and Republican attorneys general as biased, and the chapter was eventually removed. In July, more than a dozen legal groups, in a letter spearheaded by Severino, urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to open an investigation.
Arguments in the case remain on the calendar for Monday.
