Policy
In letters to members of Congress on Wednesday, Alito said his wife was responsible for flying an upside-down flag over his home in 2021 and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag at his beach house from New Jersey last year.
Associate Justice Samuel Alito. Photo AP/J. Scott Applewhite, file
WASHINGTON — Justice Samuel Alito rejects calls to recuse himself from Supreme Court cases involving former President Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 defendants because of controversy over the flags that flew over his homes.
In letters to members of Congress on Wednesday, Alito said his wife was responsible for flying an upside-down flag over his home in 2021 and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag at his beach house from New Jersey last year.
Neither incident merits his recusal, he wrote.
“I therefore have the duty to reject your request for recusal,” he wrote.
The court is considering two major cases related to the January 6, 2021 attack by a mob of Trump supporters on the Capitol, including charges against the rioters and whether Trump has immunity from prosecution for electoral interference.
Alito has rejected calls from Democrats in the past to recuse himself on other issues.
The New York Times reported that an inverted American flag was seen at Alito’s home in Alexandria, Virginia, less than two weeks after the Capitol attack. The newspaper also reported that an “Appeal to Heaven” flag was raised outside the judge’s beach house in New Jersey last summer. Both flags were carried by rioters who violently stormed the Capitol in January 2021, echoing Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
Alito said he was unaware the inverted flag was flying over his house until it was brought to his attention. “As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days she refused,” he wrote in nearly identical letters to House and Senate Democrats.
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