Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Sold Stock In Bud Light’s Owner After Right-Wing Boycott Began Over Deal With Trans Influencer

Financial disclosure filings have revealed that conservative Justice Samuel Alito sold shares of the beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev at the same time that the company faced a backlash from conservatives over its partnership with a transgender social media influencer.

Alito’s stock transactions have sparked fresh accusations that the justice is engaged in or aligned with partisan politics despite a recently adopted code of conduct that directs the justices to “refrain from political activity.”

According to a financial disclosure filing, Alito sold between $1,000 and $15,000 of A.B. InBev’s stock on Aug. 14, 2023. This coincided with a months-long campaign to boycott Bud Light (a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch) after the company partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in a social media campaign. This partnership thrust the world’s largest beermaker into the center of a broader fight over transgender rights and acceptance in the United States. It drew criticism from both conservatives and supporters of Mulvaney.

On the same day he sold his Anheuser-Busch shares, Alito proceeded to purchase an equal amount of stock in Molson Coors, a company subject to its own political boycotts over workplace practices with Mexican-Americans, blacks and the LGBTQ community. 

One study found that the boycott reportedly cost Anheuser-Busch $1.4 billion. 

Notably, AB InBev reported a better-than-expected profit in the second quarter of 2023.

Alito presently faces scrutiny for hanging an American flag upside down outside his home in the days after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. An upside-down flag is a symbol used by supporters of the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” conspiracy. Alito blamed his wife for the inverted flag and said she did it “in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”

The revelations have led to renewed calls for Alito to explain the timing and motivations behind his stock market activities.