Opinion: Nobody Is Buying SCOTUS Justice Samuel Alito’s Excuses

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After it was revealed that an upside down American flag was spotted outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in the days leading up to President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021, the longtime jurist had several chances to correct the record on why, exactly, a symbol favored by right-wing extremists to signal their false belief that the 2020 election had been stolen turned up outside the home of a supposedly nonpartisan judge.

Alito has since blamed both his wife and a neighborly dispute for the brewing scandal in a pair of interviews—but he hasn’t once disavowed the symbolism behind the flag or even suggested that he didn’t know what it meant.

It’s a concerning response given the fact that election-related cases are still being heard before the High Court, according to The Atlantic writer and author Adam Serwer, who joins The New Abnormal this week to discuss the latest in a string of recent Supreme Court scandals.

“It’s relevant that Alito might be sympathetic to the people who violently tried to overthrow the government in an attempt to keep Donald Trump in power illegally after he lost the 2020 election,” he added. “Someone like that should absolutely be nowhere near the federal bench, let alone the Supreme Court.”

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Plus! Mini Timmaraju, the President and CEO of Reproductive Freedom For All, joins the program to discuss the downward spiral of reproductive health care in the United States.

GOP’s ‘Project 2025’ Plan May See the Rise of Dictator Trump

“When we make this election a binary between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, we’re not actually digging into the full breadth of the danger that this country is facing,” Timmaraju said. “When you look state by state, folks will remember Steve Bannon said, ‘We’re taking this country apart state by state, city by city, village by village.’ And they have been successful in doing so.”

Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.

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