Supreme Court watchers learn a lot about the justices’ thinking on particular issues based on which cases they agree to accept.
Court watchers can also learn a lot based on which cases the justices reject—especially when some of the justices take the relatively rare step of issuing a statement “respecting the denial of certiorari,” which is their refusal to take a case.
That’s what happened on Monday when Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett…