Samuel Alito Sold Anheuser-Busch Stock During Right-Wing Boycott: Report

[riversedge]

Source: daily beast



SUSPICIOUS TIMING
Brett Bachman Updated May 19, 2024 10:33PM EDT /




U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito sold off a chunk of stock in Anheuser-Busch Inbev in August 2023, just as a vicious right-wing boycott campaign of the company was reaching full swing, according to financial disclosure reports first spotted by the Substack page Law Dork. The boycott was ostensibly in reaction to a limited social media partnership between trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light, one of AB-Inbev’s best-selling brands. The boycott campaign turned out to be a rare success for anti-LGBTQ activists, likely leading to more than $1 billion in lost sales and at one point wiping up to $27 billion off the company’s market cap. Alito did not respond to Law Dork’s request for comment, though the disclosure raises questions about his political activities just as the High Court faces numerous ethical scandals. Last week it was revealed that an upside down American flag was spotted outside Alito’s home in the days leading up to President Joe Biden’s inauguration. The symbol was widely adopted at the time by backers of then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” movement. The revelation has led to numerous calls for Alito to recuse himself from 2020 election-related cases that come before the court.
Read it at Law Dork

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/samuel-alito-sold-anheuser-busch-stock-during-right-wing-boycott-report?utm_campaign=owned_social&utm_medium=socialflow&utm_source=twitter_owned_tdb&via=twitter_page

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Our SC is going down down down.........!!

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Silent Type]

1. If he sold it BEFORE the boycott was apparent, might have a case against him.

[rsdsharp]

2. I fail to see why this is an issue. Unless he used insider information,

it the sale could somehow show bias in favor of a litigant before the Court (God knows how) how is selling stock likely to lose value an issue?

[Martin68]

16. The complaint isn't that he exploited insider knowledge to make a profit. It is that he engaged in political activity by

assisting the conservative anti-LGBT boycott. That should disqualify him from ruling on suits involving LGBT rights.

[rsdsharp]

17. Selling stock to mitigate what will be an obvious loss is assisting a boycott?

That’s a very loooooong stretch. Unless selling the stock violates some ethical rule or canon this is a nonissue.

Frankly, I’ve always been against judges having stock portfolios. It is, however, allowed. Nongovernmental corporate litigants in federal court have to disclose

(A) any parent corporation and any publicly held corporation owning 10% or more of its stock; or

(B) states that there is no such corporation.

Fed R Civ Pro 7.1(a)1A

That rule is so the judge can determine whether he or she should recuse. If you can hold stock, the presumption is that you do so to make money, and that you might well sell to avoid a loss.

[Martin68]

18. If he sold the article "just as the boycott was reaching full swing" as the article says, then he probably sold at a

loss. If he had anticipated the boycott and sold before it started, that would have been illegal trading.

[rsdsharp]

19. How would it have been illegal? What inside information did he have?

Anticipating a stock will fall, or continue to fall, based on public information, and acting on that belief, is not illegal.

[Martin68]

20. If he did it based on insider knowledge that a boycott was planned, that would have been illegal. As it was, he was

merely supporting the boycott, which is not illegal.

[rsdsharp]

21. Selling stock (which most people didn't know he owned) that's likely to lose value is supporting a boycott.

OK. Sure.

[Martin68]

22. I'm not saying he is smart or trying to make a profit. In fact, both are probably at play in this case.

Alito is a knee-jerk right wing extremist. Bragging rights could have been more important to him than the financial loss.

[rsdsharp]

23. Bragging rights?

Show me where he contemporaneously announced the sale. Show me where he made any statement at all regarding the Bud Light commercial, or the boycott. All of that happened in the summer of 2023, and we’re just now hearing about the sale because of his recent financial disclosure filing.

How does he get bragging rights if nobody knew about the sale?

[Martin68]

24. I must be mistaken. I guess we should assume since there is no evidence one the public record this is not

something he would have boasted about to conservative friends in private. Pure speculation on my part. Thanks for setting me right. I guess we should assume that he is a moron and waited until the price went down before selling the stock. Or tried to recoup a little of his investment before it bottomed out.

[Angleae]

3. Had I had any shares I would have sold them too.

Since only the right-wing seems to drink bud, it would be prudent to do so. But since he didn't use any inside information, this is a non-story.

[Gore1FL]

4. Per the article, he sold it "just as a vicious right-wing boycott campaign of the company was reaching full swing."

The writing was on the wall that the stock price was going to go down and he sold it.

I don't see any transgression here.

[FBaggins]

9. The theory isn't that he profited from insider information

It's that participating in a boycott is a political move that should force him to recuse from any LGBTQ cases for bias.

The theory is nonsense. It would be a political move if he announced his participation in the boycott to lend strength to the effort (though even then it would be a pretty narrow subset of cases that would be impacted)... but he didn't do that.

[PSPS]

5. Just another click-bait nonsense article from daily beast

Everyone sells stock when the price goes down. I wish daily beast weren't allowed in LBN. All they do is take another's work and juice it up with click-baity nonsense.

[4139]

6. 👍

[Oopsie Daisy]

14. 👍️ Exactly! It's "click-bait nonsense" ... that's all.

[cstanleytech]

7. Hmm so what? I mean honestly people sell stocks all the time if they think they might take a financial hit.

Don't get me wrong I don't like Alito and I think he's total fucking asshole like the other six Republican conservative toads on the court but selling stocks isn't a new thing for anybody to do.

[FakeNoose]

8. Solidarity with the MAGA-outrage crowd?

Or maybe it's just simple insider trading, dumping a loser stock before word got out.
Take your pick....

[kimbutgar]

10. It is appalling that him and Thomas have no integrity or honesty yet sit on the highest court in the land

If they were Democratic appointed judges they would quit out of shame by now.

But I am enjoying that the criticism is heating up against him and Thomas!

[Torchlight]

11. He seems really triggered

by the people he disapproves of drinking the same beer he likes. Ah well, I can see why he and his fans would want to minimize this look of his out of existence.

[jimfields33]

13. Surely does.

[HandmaidsTaleUntold]

12. This Puke Is Unhinged

I remember when this prick was selected. I knew then he was worse than all of them. Even Scalia.

[Kid Berwyn]

15. Greedhead

He'll take his reward on earth, hypocrite.