IF RBG flew an American flag upside-down in response to the 6 JAN 21 attack the U.S. Capital the hypocritical neo-nazi fascist authoritarian right wing would have had a collective aneurysm rupture. Since fotze Martha-Ann Alito did it it is OK with them. I have carried upside-down American flags at protest against the Kuwait and Iraq wars because I believed the country was in distress, being led into illegal and immoral wars (and I was right). I was not abusing our flag, I was protesting the lies and deceptions the government and the military-industrial complex were using to justify taking us to war. Fotze Martha-Ann Alito flew the American flag upside-down because she was having a hissy fit about a sign in her neighbors yard against drumpf / trump and the traitors of the 6 JAN 21 attempted coup. AND NOW it turns out right wing authoritarian neo-nazi fascist "christian" nationalist Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito flew an Appeal To Heaven flag that was carried by traitors at the 6 JAN 21 attempted coup at his Long Beach Island, New Jersey vacation home in July and September 2023. The SCOTUS is supposed to hear two court cases related to 6 JAN 21, one is if drumpf / trump has immunity for his involvement in the attempted coup and the other is if DOJ was authorized to an obstruction statute in charging over 300 traitors of 6 JAN 21. ALITO AND THOMAS must recuse themselves from these cases, if they refuse they must be removed. From the Washington Post , Axios and the petition to sign is from Demand Progress.
Supreme Court justice says his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, flew the flag as a symbol of protest after a dispute over political yard signs turned personal.
The upside-down flag has long been used as a sign of distress as well as protest by liberals and conservatives. At the time, it had been embraced by supporters of the “Stop the Steal” movement who falsely claimed the 2020 election had been stolen from Donald Trump. Some rioters displayed it when they stormed the Capitol to disrupt the formal certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
The flying of the flag at the justice’s home, which was first reported Thursday by the New York Times, has prompted calls for Alito to recuse himself from a pair of high-profile Jan. 6-related cases that the court is set to rule on in coming weeks: whether Trump has immunity for his efforts to remain in office after losing the 2020 election, and whether it was proper for the Justice Department to use an obstruction statute to charge the more than 300 who rioted that day.
Neighbors and acquaintances of Martha-Ann Alito said they have never heard her espouse election disinformation or support for the Jan. 6 attack. But they also said the flag was displayed on the front lawn of the Alitos’ Fairfax County, Va., home soon after a dispute that appeared to have political dimensions.
Neither of the Alitos responded to a request for comment through the court.
“I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag,” the justice said in a statement to the Times. “It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”
A woman who lives down the street from the Alitos, who like other neighbors spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their privacy, said her adult daughter had brought home some signs from a protest and propped them up against her bushes in the front yard. Another neighbor, who said the signs appeared in late 2020, said that one had Trump’s name on it with an expletive and that the other carried a message along the lines of “you are complicit.”
The house sits at the entrance to the quiet suburban cul-de-sac that the Alitos have called home for more than a decade. The neighbor who described the placards said they didn’t mention the Supreme Court justice explicitly, but the wording of the latter one prompted some residents to wonder whether it was a dig aimed at Alito, a staunch conservative who has frequently sided with Trump’s position in cases before the court.
At the time, the Supreme Court was deciding whether to take emergency action on a case related to Trump’s efforts to block Biden’s victory, and passions were running high about the election and Jan. 6.
In an interview Friday, the mother of the woman with the signs said Martha-Ann Alito was passing by her home one day and made comments to her daughter about them. A heated back-and-forth ensued, but the mother said she did not know what was said. The daughter, who does not live in the Washington area, did not respond to requests for comment.
Alito told Fox News reporter Shannon Bream on Friday that the sign with the expletive was about 50 feet from a school bus stop. He said his wife spoke with the neighbors about the signs shortly after Jan. 6, but the conversation did not go well, Fox reported Friday. The neighbors then put up a sign directly attacking his wife and blaming her for the Jan. 6 riots, Alito alleged. He did not say what the sign said, according to the news station.
Alito told Fox that someone living on the property got into an argument with his wife and called her a crude, derogatory word for women. He said his wife was distraught afterward and wanted to make a statement, so she hung the flag upside down.
Alito said he couldn’t tell his wife what to do, and the neighborhood has been “very political.”
One neighbor interviewed by The Washington Post said she first noticed the upside-down flag in late January 2021, and it remained up for two to five days. The neighbor said she never saw anyone raise the flag or lower it when it came down, and Martha-Ann Alito never told her what message she was trying to send.
The Times obtained a photo of the flag flying upside down Jan. 17, 2021.
The incident has once again plunged the Supreme Court into controversy, two years after revelations that Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed Trump White House officials to overturn the 2020 election results and said the contest had been stolen. Clarence Thomas has refused subsequent requests from Democrats and experts on court ethics to recuse himself from Jan. 6-related cases.
Some Democratic politicians and court accountability groups made similar calls Friday for Alito to recuse, arguing that the upside-down flag at his house raised questions about his impartiality and created the appearance of bias.
“[Alito] must recuse himself from cases involving the 2020 election and former President Donald Trump,” Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. “Congress should immediately consider legislation to impose an ethical code of conduct on a runaway Supreme Court.”
Asked at the White House briefing whether the president believes Alito should recuse, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that “that is something for the court to decide.” She emphasized that Biden believes the American flag is sacred and that “we should be making sure that it is respected in that way.”
The federal recusal statute that applies to all judges and justices requires a justice to “disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned” or “where he has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party.”
The court’s new code of conduct, adopted in November in response to ethics controversies, separately prohibits justices from engaging in political activity and directs them to “act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”
Court employees are regularly reminded that they may not publicly support or oppose a partisan organization or candidate, including through the display of “signs or bumper stickers, or stating positions on social media,” according to the court’s human resources manual.
Rakim H.D. Brooks, president of the liberal advocacy group Alliance for Justice and a former law clerk to Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh during his D.C. Circuit tenure, said in a statement Friday that it does not matter whether it was Alito or his wife who flew the flag on the couple’s property so long as the justice knew it was being flown and did nothing to stop it.
“Supreme Court justices are supposed to be the ultimate guardians of our Constitution,” Brooks said in a statement that called on Alito to recuse from any case related to Trump or the Jan. 6 attack.
But Stephen Gillers, an expert in judicial ethics at New York University’s law school, disagreed, noting that the test in the recusal statute is based on the perspective of a fair-minded person who has all the facts.
“I don’t think such an objective observer would question Alito’s impartiality based on this incident,” Gillers said in an email. “I find it impossible to believe that Alito knew the flag was flying upside down or, if he did know, that he knew the relationship to ‘Stop the Steal.’ I don’t believe he would have allowed this to happen otherwise.”
Gillers added that while Alito’s explanation for how it happened is “hard to believe, it is more credible than the view that he knowingly chose to fly the flag upside down knowing its political message.”
NYT: 2nd controversial flag flown on Alito property
A screenshot of a Google Street View taken outside Justice Samuel Alito's property in New Jersey Photo: Google Street View
An "Appeal to Heaven" flag was hung outside Justice Samuel Alito's vacation home as recently as 2023, according to photographs obtained by the New York Times.
Why it matters: It's the second symbol reportedly displayed outside an Alito home that has a connection to the Jan. 6 riot.
- An upside-down American flag, a symbol of the "Stop the Steal" movement, was hung outside the Alito home days after the Jan. 6 attack, the New York Times reported earlier this month.
State of play: The "Appeal to Heaven" flag was reportedly displayed at Alito's New Jersey vacation home in July and September of 2023, per photos obtained by the Times for a story that published Wednesday.
- The photos are from different dates and it's not clear whether the flag was hung for consecutive days.
- The white flag dates back to the Revolutionary War and has a green pine tree and the words "Appeal to Heaven" across the top.
- In recent years the flag has been embraced by Christian nationalists, and it featured prominently in the symbols waved during a Trump rally and subsequent riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
- The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment on the Times report.
Of the upside-down flag, Alito told the Times that he had "no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag."
- He said it was "briefly placed" by his wife "in response to a neighbor's use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs."
Zoom out: The reports of the flags outside Alito's home come as the nation's highest court grapples with a number of Jan. 6-related cases, including whether former President Trump has absolute immunity.
- The Supreme Court's eventual ruling on immunity could decide whether Trump ever faces trial in his federal Jan. 6 case.
- Justice Clarence Thomas has faced similar calls to recuse himself from Jan. 6-related cases over his wife Virginia "Ginni" Thomas' involvement in efforts to challenge 2020 election results.
- The latest report is likely to escalate calls from Democratic lawmakers who have been urging Alito to recuse himself from Jan. 6-related cases.
The bottom line: The Supreme Court's ethics code, which was adopted last year following a number of ethics controversies, says that justices should "avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities."
Go deeper: Alito faces intense heat from Congress over flag controversy
Go deeper
Alito faces intense heat from Congress over flag controversy
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito during a formal group photograph on Oct. 7, 2022. Photo: Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is facing blowback in Congress over reporting that an upside-down flag — a symbol of the "Stop the Steal" movement — hung outside his home in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack.
Why it matters: Even some Republicans are criticizing Alito, with Democrats going so far as to demand his recusal from Jan. 6-related cases and even censure.
According to reports from The New York Times, an upside-down American flag (a prominent ‘Stop the Steal’ symbol after January 6) flew over Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s house.1
The flag was raised over Alito’s house while the Court considered whether or not to take on a critical election case in the days after the Capitol riots, just before President Biden was sworn in.2 A Supreme Court Justice displaying a symbol at their house representing efforts to overthrow the 2020 election is disturbing AND a clear conflict of interest as Alito prepares to rule on the Trump immunity case in the next few weeks.
Alito isn’t the only one with a conflict of interest. Clarence Thomas’ wife, Ginni Thomas attended the January 6 Stop the Steal rally and pleaded with senior White House staff to help Trump overturn the election.3
Alito’s and Thomas’ actions continue to undermine public confidence in the judiciary, and raise serious ethical questions about their decisions to preside over cases relating to Trump and January 6.
As Senator Dick Durbin said of Alito’s upside-down flag, "Such actions from a person in his position send a worrying message about the stability and respect for our democratic norms."4 Rep. Jamie Raskin called it “a very clear conflict of interest.”5
Despite clear conflicts of interest, Thomas has failed to recuse himself from Trump’s immunity case, which could decide whether Trump and others involved in January 6, including his wife, could be prosecuted for election interference.6 Alito also refuses to recuse himself from January 6 related cases, even though he showed support for the insurrection at his house.
This blatant corruption on our highest court cannot be allowed to stand.
Thanks for taking action,
Joey and the team at Demand Progress
Sources:
- The New York Times, “At Justice Alito’s House, a ‘Stop the Steal’ Symbol on Display,” May 16, 2024.
- Ibid.
- The New Yorker, “Legal Scholars Are Shocked By Ginni Thomas’s 'Stop the Steal' Texts,” March 25, 2022.
- Huffington Post, "Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin Calls On Samuel Alito To Recuse From Jan. 6 Cases,” May 17, 2024.
- The Hill, "Raskin on upside-down flag at Alito home: ‘It’s a very clear conflict of interest,’” May 19, 2024.
- CBS News, "Supreme Court appears divided over obstruction law used to prosecute Trump, Jan. 6 rioters,” April 16, 2024.
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