Usually it's June 14

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If you look up Revolutionary War flags you find about 35 examples ([link removed]) from different colonies that together pretty much define the word obscure. Lots with stripes. A few with snakes. One has a white field with a drawing of a beaver that flew on naval ships in New York. Some have pine trees, a popular symbol of independence in New England.

Then there’s the one with a white background, a pine tree, and “AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN.” This flag was used by the Continental Navy with the appeal to the supernatural perhaps because they were going up against the greatest navy in the world. Two-hundred-fifty years later, it’s a Christian nationalist flag that flew at the Capitol on January 6.

Millions of people have an American flag handy they can fly upside down if they want to show sympathy with January 6 rioters who flew them that way that day. Which Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito did on January 17, 2021 at his Washington DC home for reasons he did not adequately explain. The upside down American flag has also come to represent the larger Stop the Steal movement.

Justice Alito is not known for being a Revolutionary War buff. You have to go out of your way to have one of the Appeal To Heaven flags available to fly at your New Jersey beach house as he did last summer. He didn’t fly one of the other three dozen revolutionary war flags you can find. No, Justice Alito happens to have the flag that started showing up about 10 years ago at conservative events and has been adopted by Christian nationalists ([link removed]) who think this formerly obscure flag shows we’ve always been a Christian nation.

Alito isn’t the only public official that flies the Appeal To Heaven. Christian nationalist House Speaker Mike Johnson has one outside his House office. So does Representative Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin. If I pay more attention walking the halls of Congress I’ll probably notice more. And I’d be shocked if this flag doesn’t start showing up on stage at Trump rallies.

What was Justice Alito thinking with the Appeal to Heaven flag? I’m not sure he’s flying it just to troll the liberals. That would work a lot better at his Washington home. Just speculating here, but I think when he's the guy from Jersey on vacation down at the shore in a sleepy beach town, he feels like he can be himself. And that's the problem. Being himself means being a Supreme Court justice who relates to Christian nationalists, or just is one, and flies a flag they flew at the riot on January 6.

Now, Mike Johnson flying the Appeal to Heaven is certainly inappropriate, but at least he’s open about his Christian nationalist beliefs. Until last year he was just one of the 435 people who constitute half of Congress. Even as Speaker he’s finding he can’t ram things through the House. But unlike Justice Alito he is subject to significant transparency about his finances and where campaign donations come from. The House Ethics Committee can investigate him. Johnson is expected to be political, or biased to put it more simply. And unlike Alito, Johnson is subject to the judgment of the voters every two years.

Alito has a lifetime appointment to be one of nine people who decide what the Constitution says. Alito’s job is to be unbiased when he interprets the law. He is expected to keep his religious beliefs out of that interpretation. Flying the flag of people who want a more Christian nation tells us what he really thinks. Even if this were just the appearance of bias, that is what the Supreme Court's new code of ethics says should lead to a recusal in related cases.

Flying that flag tells us Alito should have recused himself from the pending cases that will decide whether Trump can be criminally prosecuted for his efforts to remain in office after losing the 2020 election, and whether the Justice Department can use an obstruction charge to prosecute more than 300 January 6 rioters. Alito still could recuse himself, but he won’t. There are no consequences for him whatsoever if he doesn't.

Representative Steve Cohenintroduced a resolution ([link removed]) to censure Justice Alito following the upside down flag report. After many "Whereases" it states:

That the House of Representatives—

(1) censures Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Jr., for knowingly violating the Federal recusal statute and binding ethics standards and calling the impartiality of the Supreme Court of the United States into question by continuing to participate in cases in which his prior public conduct could be reasonably interpreted to demonstrate bias; and

(2) demands Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Jr., recuse himself from all litigation related to the 2020 election or the insurrection on January 6, 2021.

You can ask your representative to support the resolution here. ([link removed])

As the resolution mentions, the flag should only be flown upside down as an indication of "dire distress." Here's one I'm flying for the Supreme Court.


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Scott MacConomy, Director of Policy ad Government Affairs at the Secular Coalition for America, wears a blue suit and stands with his arms crossed over his chest in front of the United States Capitol Building.

Your advocate,

Scott MacConomy
Director of Policy and Government Affairs
Secular Coalition for America
[email protected]
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