Similar concerns are raised by a Monday report in the Law Dork newsletter, which published a disclosure form documenting two stock transactions that Alito made on Aug. 14, 2023. On that day, per the form, Alito sold between $1,000 and $15,000 of stock in Anheuser-Busch and bought between $1,000 and $15,000 of stock in Molson Coors. Why is this significant? Because Anheuser-Busch makes Bud Light beer, and August 2023 was the height of the backlash against Bud Light for having engaged in a promotional transaction with social media personality Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender woman. Molson Coors makes Miller Light and Coors Light, Bud Light’s competitors.

Selling BUD and buying TAP at the time would not have had much value as an investment decision. (As it stands today, it would have been a money-losing move, with Molson Coors having lost about $10 per share in value while Anheuser-Busch has gained the same amount.) Your correspondent is not a registered financial adviser but understands that it is generally not considered advisable to rack up transaction fees selling and buying relatively modest amounts of stock in individual companies; the justice’s other disclosures do not portray him as a particularly active trader.

What seems more likely is that Alito—or the enigmatic Mrs. Alito—made the beer conglomerate swap in order to make a political point about an issue that had become a controversy thanks to the furious viral efforts of right-wing media figures like Kid Rock and “Libs of TikTok” proprietor Chaya Raichik.