We may be waiting on the final word in major cases from 1 First Street NE for a few weeks yet but there’s been no slowdown when it comes to revelations surrounding unethical conduct by members of Chief Judge John Roberts’s uber-conservative uber-majority.
On May 16, the New York Times broke the news that the Alitos flew an upside-down American flag — a symbol of distress appropriated by “Stop the Steal” activists who sought to undermine the 2020 election results — at their Virginia home days after the January 6 insurrection. Justice Alito’s response? Blame Martha-Ann.
Alito doubled down on his strategy of blaming his spouse a week later after we learned the couple’s use of flags to signal objections to democracy — and/or Martha-Ann’s rogue flag-flying and Alito’s selective blindness — is a habit, not an outlier.
Aware of public scrutiny and the ethical implications of their flag choices thanks to the Washington Post, the Alitos nevertheless flew an “Appeal to Heaven” flag at their New Jersey beach house last summer. The latter flag is associated not just with the 2021 insurrection and efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election but with Christian nationalists.
Sound bad? It is. That’s why Alliance for Justice called for Alito to recuse himself in Trump v. United States, concerning the former president’s claim he is immune from prosecution for inciting the January 6 insurrection, and related cases. But Alito’s not budging. In fact, he’s tripled down.
In a letter to Senators Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse, Alito officially and extensively blames his wife for flags flown and claims he is “duty-bound” to hear the case because “a reasonable person” would not find that repeatedly, publicly signaling support for the overthrow of the U.S. government meets the “applicable” standard for recusal.
Alito’s intransigence comes as little surprise as Roberts continues to fail to address ethical violations at the Court and Justice Clarence Thomas, though even more egregiously ethically compromised, likewise refuses to recuse himself when he should.
For more on the call for Supreme Court accountability, check out today’s Democracy Docket post by AFJ President Rakim Brooks and VP Keith Thirion.
