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Justice Sam Alito Blames His Wife for Flying a Very Sedition-y Flag Outside Their House in 2021

Seems like a great thing for someone who is currently deliberating the concept of sweeping presidential immunity to have lying around.

By Charles P. Pierce PUBLISHED: MAY 17, 2024 10:50 AM EDT


the us supreme court poses for official group photo
Alex Wong//Getty Images

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a60825069/supreme-court-alito-inverted-flag/

Sometimes, there is no place else to go except deep into the wisdom of Martin J. Dooley, saloonkeeper, landlord, ward captain, and entrepreneur of th’ Archey Road in Chicago. Of all the pearls that Mr. Dooley hurled before us swine, this is one of the most famous. “No matter whether th’ constitution follows th’ flag or not, th’ supreme coort follows th’ iliction returns.”

Or, on occasion, tampers with them, or tries to, anyway.

And what’s with the wives of the members of our carefully cultivated conservative majority on the current Supreme Court? If it’s not Ginni Thomas, ginning up revolution, now it seems to be Martha-Ann Alito, feuding with the neighbors, flying the American flag in a seditious manner outside the house, and getting thrown under the train by her husband for her trouble. Jodi Kantor of The New York Times has the skinny:

One of the homes flying an inverted flag [after the 2020 election] was the residence of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., in Alexandria, Va., according to photographs and interviews with neighbors. The upside-down flag was aloft on Jan. 17, 2021, the images showed. President Donald J. Trump’s supporters, including some brandishing the same symbol, had rioted at the Capitol a little over a week before.

Mr. Biden’s inauguration was three days away. Alarmed neighbors snapped photographs, some of which were recently obtained by The New York Times. Word of the flag filtered back to the court, people who worked there said in interviews.

And it was at this point that hubby beat feet for the hills.

“I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag,” Justice Alito said in an emailed 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.”

Y’all on yer own, Martha-Ann.

Various wise old ethical heads have chimed in on the Alitos’ obvious appearance of impropriety.

Judicial experts said in interviews that the flag was a clear violation of ethics rules, which seek to avoid even the appearance of bias, and could sow doubt about Justice Alito’s impartiality in cases related to the election and the Capitol riot.

Those doubts were sown a long time ago, but this latest revelation will make them bloom lushly for a very long time.

The mere impression of political opinion can be a problem, the ethics experts said. “It might be his spouse or someone else living in his home, but he shouldn’t have it in his yard as his message to the world,” said Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia. This is “the equivalent of putting a ‘Stop the Steal’ sign in your yard, which is a problem if you’re deciding election-related cases,” she said.

However, Kantor went further in her reporting than dialing up various academics. She worked the Alitos’ neighbors in Arlington, Virginia, and, Lordy lord, did they have some tales to tell.

In recent years, the quiet sanctuary of his street, with residents who are Republicans and Democrats, has tensed with conflict, neighbors said.... Some residents have also bridled at the noise and intrusion brought by protesters, who started showing up outside the Alito residence in 2022 after the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion.

Other neighbors have joined the demonstrators, whose intent was “to bring the protest to their personal lives because the decisions affect our personal lives,” said Heather-Ann Irons, who came to the street to protest.

The half-dozen neighbors who saw the flag, or knew of it, requested anonymity because they said they did not want to add to the contentiousness on the block and feared reprisal. Last Saturday, May 11, protesters returned to the street, waving flags of their own (“Don’t Tread on My Uterus”) and using a megaphone to broadcast expletives at Justice Alito, who was in Ohio giving a commencement address. Mrs. Alito appeared in a window, complaining to the Supreme Court security detail outside.

Right now, the Court is deliberating the concept of sweeping presidential immunity, a legal absurdity concocted by the former president* and his lawyers in an attempt to sabotage once and for all special counsel Jack Smith’s case against him concerning his actions on January 6, 2021.

The entire Republican party is engaged in a massive act of historical vandalism concerning the events of that day, and the guy in the special counsel’s crosshairs is the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. And the angriest, most arrogant member of the carefully cultivated conservative majority had the ultimate symbol of wing-nut vengeance flying above his house. That is not the flag that the Constitution follows.