我不认为最高法院大法官塞缪尔·阿利托是个特别有趣的人。但他最近接受美国哥伦比亚广播公司新闻部法律记者简·克劳福德的采访，却让我笑出声来。
I don’t think of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito as a particularly funny guy. But his recent interview with CBS News legal correspondent Jan Crawford made me laugh out loud.
“我们不属于任何政治运动，我们也没有试图推进任何政治议程，”阿利托说。得了吧，老兄，你真要笑死我了！
“We are not part of any political movement, and we are not attempting to further any political agenda,” Alito said. C’mon, man, you’re killing me!
阿利托的说法以一种荒诞的故作严肃方式令人发笑。但它引发的笑声并不是快乐的笑声。那是一种当你听到特朗普总统说出某些荒唐话时从嘴里蹦出的哼声。他当我们的总统简直荒谬透顶，可他就站在那里。
Alito’s claim is hilarious in an absurdist deadpan sort of way. But the laughter it provokes is not happy laughter. It’s the kind of grunt that pops out of your mouth when you hear President Trump spout some ridiculous thing. It’s preposterous that he is our president, and yet there he is.
说到阿利托的说法，历史很清楚。最高法院的右翼多数派——阿利托和克拉伦斯·托马斯占据着其最右端——的建立明确就是为了推进一项政治议程。
When it comes to Alito’s claim, the history is clear. The right-wing Supreme Court majority — Alito and Clarence Thomas hold down its right-most edge — was built explicitly to further a political agenda.
联邦党人学会、传统基金会以及过去50年间建立起来的整个庞大的右翼基础设施，是企业、基金会和富人长期运动的成果，这场运动旨在积累足够的政治和法律权力，以扭转一个世纪的进步成就。
The Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation and the whole massive right-wing infrastructure built over the past 50 years is the fruit of a long-term campaign by corporations, foundations and wealthy individuals to amass enough political and legal power to reverse a century of progressive advances.
运动领袖们着手推翻数十年的先例，让这个国家回到罗斯福新政前、《民权法案》前版本的现实。在那种现实中，联邦政府没有多大权力干预企业对工人或环境为所欲为，劳工工会的谈判权力和政治权力遭到残酷削弱，历史上被边缘化群体的权利被忽视。
Movement leaders set out to overturn decades of precedent and return the country to a pre-New Deal, pre-Civil Rights Act version of reality. A reality in which the federal government doesn’t have much power to interfere with corporations doing whatever they want to workers or the environment, the bargaining and political power of worker unions has been brutally undermined and the rights of historically marginalized communities are ignored.
当特朗普首次当选时，右翼活动人士兴高采烈，认为他的司法提名将赋予他们“从根本上改变美国”的权力。而这还要加上阿利托等保守派法官在诸如“联合公民诉联邦选举委员会案”等判决中对民主所造成的影响——该判决使得几乎不可能保护我们的选举免受拥有无限财富的个人和公司的影响，以及“谢尔比县诉霍尔德案”，该案拉开了最高法院削弱《投票权法案》的序幕。
When Trump was elected for the first time, right-wing activists were giddy that his judicial nominees would give them the power to “fundamentally change America.”And that was on top of what court conservatives, including Alito, had already done to democracy in decisions like Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which made it virtually impossible to protect our elections from people and corporations with unlimited wealth, and Shelby County v. Holder, which started the court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act.
当奥巴马总统在2010年国情咨文演讲中批评“联合公民诉联邦选举委员会案”判决时，警告称这将为包括外国公司在内的特殊利益集团“在我们的选举中无限制花费”打开闸门，阿利托摇了摇头，嘴里说着：“不真实。”历史已经证明奥巴马是正确的。“联合公民诉联邦选举委员会案”及其他削弱对选举中资金流动进行监管努力的判决的影响是巨大的。
When President Barack Obama criticized the Citizens United decision during his 2010 State of the Union speech, warning that it would open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, “to spend without limit in our elections,” Alito shook his head and mouthed, “Not true.”History has proven that Obama was right. and the impact of Citizens United and other rulings impairing efforts to regulate money flowing into elections has been enormous.
说到政治议程，阿利托起草了2022年推翻“罗伊诉韦德案”的判决。他还一直是削弱《投票权法案》的核心人物，这是对渴望通过重新划分选区削弱黑人和棕色人种选民政治代表权、从而增加自身权力的共和党政治家的一份礼物。今年早些时候，阿利托撰写了“路易斯安那州诉卡莱斯案”的意见书，持不同意见的大法官指出，该意见使《投票权法案》的一项关键条款“几乎成为废纸”。
Speaking of political agendas, Alito wrote the 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade. He has also been central to the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, a gift to Republican politicians eager to increase their power by gerrymandering away political representation for Black and brown voters. Earlier this year, Alito authored the opinion in Louisiana v. Callais, which the dissenting justices noted had made a key provision of the Voting Rights Act “all but a dead letter.”
阿利托一直是“单一行政权力”理论的长期倡导者——这是一种主张总统权力几乎不受制约的右翼理论。这一最高法院多数派已经将其变为现实，使特朗普能够将独立机构变成他个人和政治报复的工具。
Alito has been a long-time advocate for the “unitary executive” — a right-wing theory for virtually unchecked presidential power. This Supreme Court majority has made it our reality, allowing Trump to turn independent agencies into instruments of his personal and political vendettas.
阿利托经常在联邦党人学会及其他右翼团体的活动中发表讲话，淡化了公共利益组织提出的关于“司法影响力买卖”的伦理担忧。
Alito has spoken frequently at events for the Federalist Society and other right-wing groups, brushing aside ethical concerns about “judicial influence buying” raised by public interest organizations.
右翼政客和活动人士毫无争议地认为联邦法院是他们政治议程的工具。
There is really no question that right-wing politicians and activists view the federal courts as an instrument of their political agenda.
参议员米奇·麦康奈尔（共和党-肯塔基州）在担任参议院多数党领袖期间，拒绝让参议院甚至考虑巴拉克·奥巴马总统提名的候选人，以填补安东宁·斯卡利亚去世导致的最高法院空缺，因而成为硬右派的英雄。
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) became a hero to the hard right when, as Senate majority leader, he refused to allow the Senate to even consider President Barack Obama’s nomination to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Antonin Scalia.
特朗普首次当选后，麦康奈尔和其他右翼操作者公开炫耀，特朗普能够填补多少司法职位空缺，因为麦康奈尔和参议院共和党人在奥巴马总统任期最后两年里阻碍和拖延了司法提名。共和党参议员对特朗普则采取了相反的做法，他们急忙批准甚至他最不合格、最赤裸裸带党派色彩的终身联邦法官提名人选。
After Trump’s first election, McConnell and other right-wing operatives openly gloated about how many judicial vacancies Trump would be able to fill because McConnell and Senate Republicans obstructed and slow-walked judicial nominees during the last two years of Obama’s presidency. Republican senators have done the opposite for Trump, rushing to approve even his least qualified and most nakedly partisan nominees for lifetime federal judgeships.
当法院——但不是阿利托——抵制他几项最明显违宪的举动时，特朗普曾严厉抱怨。特朗普只对阿利托赞赏有加，阿利托一直是政府立场的可靠票仓和修辞喉舌。
Trump has complained harshly when the court — but not Alito — has resisted a few of his most blatantly unconstitutional moves. Trump has only praise for Alito, who has been a reliable vote and a rhetorical mouthpiece for the administration’s positions.
阿利托可以说，暗示他是MAGA运动在法院的人选是“有冒犯性”的。但假装否则的话，那就是个笑话。
Alito can say it’s “offensive” to suggest that he’s the MAGA movement’s man on the court. But it would be a joke to pretend otherwise.
这就是选民在这次中期选举中应该把参议院多数党交给民主党的众多充分理由之一。如果共和党继续控制参议院，特朗普总统将继续任命法官，使美国人的生活变得更不负担得起，更受总统及其企业和大科技支持者的专制冲动影响。
That’s one of many good reasons voters should give Democrats a Senate majority in these midterm elections. If Republicans maintain their control of the Senate, President Trump will continue to fill the courts with judges who make Americans’ lives less affordable and more subject to the authoritarian impulses of the president and his corporate and big tech backers.
他肯定会任命像阿利托这样的人填补任何最高法院空缺，因为他可以依靠阿利托让他逍遥法外。斯万特·米里克是美国之路人民组织的主席。
And he’ll be sure to fill any Supreme Court vacancies with people like Alito, who he can count on to let him get away with anything. Svante Myrick is president of People For the American Way.