Samuel Alito’s wife says toppled flag was ‘international sign of distress’ | US Supreme Court

The wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito reportedly justified displaying an upside-down American flag at the couple’s home by saying it was an “international signal of distress,” as top Democrats requested a meeting with the chief justice over the growing crisis. scandal.

Martha-Ann Alito made the comments to a Washington Post reporter, the outlet reported Saturday, when the reporter visited the couple’s Virginia home in January 2021, shortly after the attack on the U.S. Capitol by extremist supporters of Donald Trump.

She reportedly told the Washington Post at the time that the flag was raised that way on their flagpole in response to a neighborhood dispute.

Flying the Stars and Stripes upside down is acceptable as a rare distress signal, according to the official U.S. flag code. But these days it is more often associated with activists making an extremist protest sign, and by the time of the January 6 insurrection it had been adopted by some on the far right amid ultimately unsuccessful efforts to to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Trump.

The Washington Post said Saturday, citing the outlet’s own spokesperson, that “the Post decided not to report on the episode at the time because the flag-raising appeared to be the work of Martha-Ann Alito, rather than justice, and linked to a dispute with his neighbors… It was not clear at the time that the dispute was rooted in politics.

In another twist, it was the New York Times which was the first to report earlier this week the display of the American flag in this manner at the Alitos’ residence in early 2021, during a political argument with neighbors.

This was quickly followed by a second report from The Times that another flag, originally associated with the American Revolution but now associated with the far right and known as the “Call to Heaven” flag, was flying the last year above a state vacation home. Alitos in New Jersey.

Two leading Democratic senators are requesting a meeting with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts following these reports. This comes on top of calls demanding that Justice Alito recuse himself from election-related cases before the court and that he be investigated by the U.S. Senate, the chamber of Congress that confirms federal court judges and the Supreme Court.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin and Senator and Judiciary Committee member Sheldon Whitehouse wrote a letter to Roberts earlier this week requesting a meeting to discuss court ethics and take steps to ensure that Alito recuse himself from any matter brought before the court. court regarding the Jan. 6 attack or Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

The court did not respond to a request for comment regarding the letter.

The court is considering two major cases related to the Capitol attack, including one related to charges against the rioters and another on whether Trump has immunity from prosecution for election interference. Alito is participating in both cases and has rejected calls from Democrats in the past to recuse himself on other issues.

Alito had earlier said he had no role in displaying the inverted American flag. He and the court declined to respond to requests for comment on how the “Call to Heaven” banner was launched and what it was intended to express.

Durbin and Whitehouse said they would continue to put pressure on the court. The call for a meeting is a new approach after Roberts refused to testify at a Supreme Court ethics hearing last year, amid a scandal over accusations of political influence and corruption targeting Alito and Clarence Thomas, the two most conservative justices on the Supreme Court. bench.

“Until the court and judicial conference take meaningful action to resolve this current ethical crisis, we will continue our efforts to pass legislation to resolve this crisis,” Durbin and Whitehouse wrote.

The American Legion’s American Flag Code states that “the flag shall never be flown with the union lowered, except as a signal of extreme distress in cases of extreme danger to life or property.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report