Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. won’t retire until the Supreme Court overturns a roughly 30-year-old religious liberty precedent.
So says Mollie Hemingway, author of the recently released biography “Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution” (Basic Liberty). Ms. Hemingway, editor-in-chief of The Federalist online magazine, recently held a Q&A in Arlington, Virginia, where she offered her prediction.
“I am just going to speculate here: I personally believe, if you study his jurisprudence going back to when he was a federal judge, he cares deeply about Employment Division v. Smith,” the conservative columnist and commentator said.
“You see Alito on the 3rd Circuit working around Employment Division v Smith,” she said, recalling when the conservative justice was a circuit court judge in the 1990s before being sworn onto the Supreme Court in 2006.
In Employment Division v. Smith, the Supreme Court ruled that a state can deny employment benefits to someone who had used illegal drugs. The issue was that an American Indian worker had used peyote as part of a religious exercise and claimed that denying him benefits ran afoul of the First Amendment.
“I do not see him leaving the court until that’s done, but that is me speculating,” Ms. Hemingway said of Justice Alito.
Court watchers have debated whether there’s a greater-than-usual chance that Justice Alito, 76, or Justice Clarence Thomas, 77, may retire before November’s midterm elections.
A court retirement with a GOP-led Senate would easily be filled by President Trump, giving him a fourth high court nominee. He had three during his first term: Justices Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
In “Alito,” Ms. Hemingway details Justice Alito’s role on the court as the justice who wrote the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision that gave women a national right to abortion. The biography was published April 12.
King and queen’s visit reigns for chief of protocol
The White House official who manages diplomatic events said Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla’s visit to Washington in April was one of the most memorable events she’s organized in her roughly one year in office.
Ambassador Monica Crowley, the 35th chief of protocol of the United States, called herself an anglophile, saying she “grew up sort of watching the royal family.”
“So, for me to spend that time with Their Majesties was kind of an out-of-body experience, as well as being at Windsor,” Ms. Crowley said.
“Seen, Heard & Whispered” learned that the king and queen, who stayed at Blair House, known as the president’s guest house, used a private sitting room as their dining room. Staff moved a table into the area where the king and queen could look into Blair House’s beautiful courtyard while they ate.
The Blair House staff was upbeat about having just had the king and queen stay there.
Their Majesties spent four days in the United States, visiting Washington as well as making stops in Virginia and New York.
Ms. Crowley welcomed them as chief of protocol when they landed at Joint Base Andrews. She also accompanied the president on his September 2025 visit to Windsor Castle.
Former Laura Ingraham producer launches ‘Dangerous Laughter’
A.J. Rice, CEO of Publius PR and an author, has launched the “Dangerous Laughter” podcast to fill a role that late-night comedy has missed, “Seen, Heard & Whispered” learned.
Mr. Rice, who previously worked as Fox News’ Laura Ingraham’s producer before launching his conservative PR agency, plans to “punch up, mock absurd power, and transform political horror into humor.”
According to his Amazon author page, his clients include Ms. Ingraham, Ms. Crowley, President Trump, Don Trump Jr., Charlie Kirk, Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Scott Bessent, Jeanine Pirro and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., among other A-list politicos. He is the author of “The Woking Dead: How Society’s Vogue Virus Destroys Our Culture” and other books.
The first episode dropped June 3 and featured Washington Times’ Alex Swoyer’s book “Lawless Lawfare: Tipping the Scales of Justice to Get Trump and Destroy MAGA.” Ms. Swoyer and Mr. Rice spoke about how “lawfare” has become the norm in American politics.
The podcast’s episodes will post Tuesdays and Fridays on YouTube, Rumble and other platforms such as Spotify and Apple.
• Seen, Heard & Whispered is a weekly column taking you inside the conversations happening in Washington’s power corridors, the moves being made and the whispers that explain what’s really going on in the nation’s capital. Email tips to whispered@washingtontimes.com. Click here to receive this in your inbox every Friday morning.
