Maddow Blog | Second flag takes Justice Alito’s mess to a striking new level
By any fair measure, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was already one of the nation’s most controversial jurists, having earned a reputation as the high court’s most reflexively partisan ideologue. But the past week has taken questions about the far-right justice to a striking new level.
It was a week ago today when The New York Times published this report, noting that in early 2021, between the Jan. 6 attack and Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration, an upside-down American flag flew in front of Alito’s home. It was, at the time, a prominent symbol embraced by far-right “Stop the Steal” activists who believed nonsensical conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
After the report jolted the political world, Alito turned to — who else? — Fox News, explaining that his wife hoisted the upside-down flag after some unpleasant interactions with purportedly rude neighbors. His comments largely made the burgeoning controversy worse.
Soon after, as Chris Geidner was first to report, Alito also apparently sold Bud Light stock in the midst of far-right hysterics about the company partnering with a trans influencer.
The justice didn’t need another damaging revelation, but he’s now confronting one anyway. The Times reported on a new flag controversy, this time related to his vacation house in New Jersey.
According to the Times’ account, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, there’s considerable photographic evidence that the “Appeal to Heaven” flag flew at the Alito home in the summer of 2023 — around the time the Supreme Court was considering whether Jan. 6 rioters could be prosecuted for obstruction.
Dahlia Lithwick also explained in her latest Slate piece, “That flag is not merely another January 6 signifier but also rooted in John Locke’s ‘appeal to heaven,’ meaning ‘a responsibility to rebel, even use violence, to overthrow unjust rule.’”
If Alito is hoping another "my wife had a run-in with an unkind neighbor" defense is going to work, he’s going to be disappointed. Indeed, the challenge is now greater for the justice’s allies: How will they defend these cascading controversies now that the initial talking points have collapsed?
It’s possible, of course, that Alito will simply shrug his shoulders in indifference. As MSNBC’s Chris Hayes noted online overnight, “Alito could show up to the next oral arguments with a MAGA face tattoo and you wouldn’t be able to impeach and remove him. He could make a $200,000 contribution to Trump’s SuperPAC. In a literal sense right now, there simply is no tangible boundary other than social sanction, personal reputation, pressure from other justices, etc.”
That leaves members of Congress with a question in need of an answer: If Alito blows off his many controversies, effectively thumbing his nose at propriety and professional ethics, will they step to scrutinize his messes or not?
A few Senate Republicans expressed some discomfort in the wake of the initial Times reporting, and it stands to reason that the new revelations will not ease their concerns. Among Democrats, the reactions, not surprisingly, have been far stronger.
Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee, for example, has introduced a censure resolution targeting Alito, and dozens of other House Democrats have written to the justice, pressing him to recuse himself from Jan. 6–related cases.
As of a couple of days ago, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters that he wasn’t prepared to hold a hearing on Alito’s controversies, but (a) that was before the Times’ latest reporting, and (b) Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he and Durbin were still “discussing” possible next steps.
My MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin made a persuasive case the other day that Alito, indifferent to appearances, will almost certainly ignore the calls from congressional Democrats, though I suspect those calls are poised to get quite a bit louder.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
