The justices are increasingly operating by the sheer force of raw power. That should trouble us all

We’re supposed to believe that it was about a job interview. On Tuesday, president-elect Donald Trump spoke on the phone with supreme court Justice Samuel Alito; the call came just a few hours before Trump’s attorneys petitioned the supreme court to put a stop to his criminal sentencing, scheduled for this Friday, in a New York state court.

Alito insists that this was all perfectly innocent. “William Levi, one of my former law clerks, asked me to take a call from president-elect Trump regarding his qualifications to serve in a government position,” the justice told ABC News after word of the call leaked on Wednesday.