Alito Flag-Gate: Elections Have Consequences

If you still aren’t aware that elections have consequences, look no further than the Samuel Alito flag-gate.

Politics :
US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is supposed to be fair and impartial — just like all the other justices on the nation’s highest court. So, why then has he been identified as a supporter of the MAGA movement and Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him?

According to The New York Times, Justice Alito flew an inverted US flag at his residence in Alexandria, VA, back in 2021. The upside-down flag became a symbol of protest among MAGA members to detest the 2020 presidential election results and promote the false narrative that Trump won and Biden lost. The Times said startled neighbors took photos of the flag at the Alito residence and submitted them to authorities. Those photos eventually made their way back to the Supreme Court.

As expected, Alito denied any wrongdoing and accepted zero responsibility for the MAGA message.

“I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag,” the judge said in a statement to The Times. “It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”

The judge was referring to a dispute with another family on the block involving an anti-Trump sign on their lawn. However, given the timing and the starkness of the symbol, the neighbors understandably interpreted the inverted flag as a political statement by the couple.

Oh, but wait. There’s more.

During the Summer of 2023, another provocative symbol was displayed at an Alito vacation home.

Neighbors on Long Beach Island snapped photos of an “Appeal To Heaven” flag at the Alito property. This symbol, widely known as the Pine Tree flag, was carried by rioters during the Jan. 6th Capitol Hill insurrection. Although it dates back to the Revolutionary War, it is now recognized as an acceptable symbol of Trump’s “Stop The Steal” movement and for a push to remake the American government in Christian terms. 

Although Justice Alito claimed the first flag was a temporary “mistake” made by his wife, this one couldn’t be explained away so easily since neighbors photographed it on 4 separate occasions over a period of 2 months.

Judicial experts are now crying foul and reminding Americans that the flags are a clear violation of ethics rules (which seek to avoid even the appearance of bias). They also believe the symbols could sow doubt about Justice Alito’s impartiality in cases related to the election and the Capitol riot.  

“It might be his spouse or someone else living in his home, but he shouldn’t have it in his yard as his message to the world,” said Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia. This is “the equivalent of putting a ‘Stop the Steal’ sign in your yard, which is a problem if you’re deciding election-related cases,” she added.

“You always want to be proactive about the appearance of impartiality,” said Jeremy Fogel, a former federal judge and the director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute. “The best practice would be to make sure that nothing like that is in front of your house.”

The Supreme Court has repeatedly warned its justices and employees against public displays of partisan views. This includes signs or bumper stickers that might portray a political position.

The longstanding ethics code for the lower courts, as well as the one recently adopted by the Supreme Court, has stressed the need for judges to remain independent and avoid political statements or opinions on matters that could come before them.

However, despite the rules, it’s clear that the current Supreme Court is not only political, but enormously biased toward Republicans, Donald Trump, and the Trump/MAGA movement.

At least 3 of the sitting justices would not be on the bench for life had Donald Trump not been given the opportunity to paint the court in his image.

Or, to put it succinctly, elections have consequences.

OK WASSUP! discusses Politics:
Justice Samuel Alito and his MAGA flags.