Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) is the Ranking Member on the House Oversight Committee, where he serves as chief foil to Chair James Comer’s (R-KY) efforts to press Biden family investigations and bring impeachment charges. A Harvard-trained lawyer, Raskin has been an influential and vocal voice in the Democratic Party on numerous issues, especially the courts and the justice system where the title of his book, Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court versus the American People, gives a sense of where he stands on the current circumstances.
Raskin has loudly decried what he characterizes as the Supreme Court’s ethically compromised position at least since Justice Clarence Thomas was revealed last year to have received myriad unreported emoluments over decades from a billionaire benefactor with interests in cases before the courts.
Similar accusations made against Justice Samuel Alito also drew Raskin’s condemnation. But the revelation exposed in the recent New York Times story that Alito’s suburban Virginia home flew an inverted American flag in the days after January 6, 2021, represents — as Raskin sees it — a new level of ethical decay. (The inverted flag is an acknowledged symbol of the “stop the steal” movement encouraged by Donald Trump and MAGA to push the reversal of the 2020 election results based on the false premise that the election was stolen.)
Since the Supreme Court is subject only to self-policing for ethics transgressions, and because Trump is unlikely to stand trial before November for either federal case against him (or for the Fulton County racketeering case), Raskin is encouraging voters to turn America “right side up” again in November. The ballot — and the court of public opinion expressed in votes — is the most likely method, Raskin believes, that an inversion of today’s upside down politics might be accomplished.
Justice Alito turned the flag upside down. Donald Trump turned the Bible upside down. MAGA turned the Capitol upside down. The Roberts Court turned the Constitution upside down. Let’s set America right side up in November.
— Jamie Raskin (@jamie_raskin) May 20, 2024
“Justice Alito turned the flag upside down. Donald Trump turned the Bible upside down.” Raskin wrote to his followers today. “MAGA turned the Capitol upside down. The Roberts Court turned the Constitution upside down. Let’s set America right side up in November.”
Raskin’s statement met with approbation in the comments, and also fierce resistance and objections to his premise. “Raskin turns reason upside down,” writes one, while another Trump supporter says Raskin isn’t respecting the first amendment rights of inverted flag flyers, saying she flew her flag inverted as a protest during the Obama administration.
Of course, Raskin and others who find Alito’s behavior objectionable don’t do so because an inverted flag isn’t protected as expression by the First Amendment — they find Alito’s flag-flying objectionable because of his vow to be an impartial jurist on the Supreme Court.