Samuel Alito accepted concert tickets from conservative German aristocrat
#Samuel #Alito, the US supreme court justice, accepted $900 concert tickets from a Catholic German aristocrat known for her unabashed conservative views and ties to rightwing activists, his latest financial disclosure form reveals.
#Princess #Gloria #von #Thurn #und #Taxis reportedly gifted the tickets to Alito and his wife to allow them to attend the Regensburg castle festival,
an annual summer music extravaganza hosted at her 500-room castle in Bavaria.
The princess, a descendant of princes of the Holy Roman empire, is noted for ties with #Steve #Bannon, a key supporter and former aide of #Donald #Trump, and connections to figures in the Catholic hierarchy opposed to Pope Francis.
Her donation to Alito is set out in the justice’s annual financial disclosure report, which he filed late after requesting an extension.
The declaration follows a series of controversies over the ethics of supreme court justices amid revelations that some, including Alito himself and Justice #Clarence #Thomas, have accepted gifts from wealthy benefactors without disclosing on mandatory forms.
Alito has been at the centre of reports that he accepted a private jet free travel gift for a luxury salmon fishing trip from a conservative billionaire who had cases pending before the supreme court.
He previously met von Thurn und Taxis along with fellow justice #Brett #Kavanaugh when she visited the supreme court in 2019 along with #Cardinal #Gerhard #Ludwig #Müller, who was dismissed from his position as head of the Catholic’s church’s doctrinal body by Pope Francis, and #Brian #Brown, a leading anti-LGBTQ+ activist.
Von Thurn und Taxis’s palatial castle in Regensburg – the venue for the concert attended by Alito and his wife – has been mooted by Bannon as a potential venue for a 
European network of finishing schools for rightwing conservatives.
After her reinvention as a conservative Catholic activist, she drew criticism in 2001 after saying on a television talkshow that the high rate of Aids in Africa was due, not to a lack of safe sex, but because
“the Blacks like to copulate a lot”.
She later tried to amend her remarks, saying Africans had a lot of sex due to the continent’s hot climate.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/sep/09/samuel-alito-supreme-court?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
