The New York Times yesterday published the article “At Justice Alito’s House, a ‘Stop the Steal’ Symbol on Display” with a photo of an upside-down flag flapping in the wind in front of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s private residence in Alexandria, Virginia.
MAGA loyalists who contest the results of the 2020 presidential election have been seen waving upside-down flags at Trump rallies, as many did on January 6 at the Capitol — the upside-down flag being a widely adopted symbol for the unfounded belief that the election was corrupt and its results illegitimate.
I don’t know what’s more insane: That this is a sitting Justice of the Supreme Court, or that this story was buried for over three years https://t.co/Wei9RMVLy8
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) May 17, 2024
According to the Times, days after the inauguration of President Joe Biden on January 20 (which Trump infamously skipped), the inverted flag was raised on Alito’s front lawn. The flag, and the idea that a SCOTUS justice would fly a symbol of the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement, surprised enough neighbors that some took photos and complained to the court, which was considering 2020 election cases at the time.
Alito told the Times that his wife raised the inverted flag in response to a sign on a neighbor’s lawn which featured an expletive with Donald Trump’s name.
Former FBI Special Agent-turned-Yale-trained lawyer Asha Rangappa responded to the article: “I don’t know what’s more insane: That this is a sitting Justice of the Supreme Court, or that this story was buried for over three years.”
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Alito should “recuse himself immediately from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection” as the act of flying an inverted flag, a symbol of the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement “clearly creates the appearance of bias.”
Durbin added: “The Court is in an ethical crisis of its own making, and Justice Alito and the rest of the Court should be doing everything in their power to regain public trust.” He added: “Supreme Court justices should be held to the highest ethical standards, not the lowest.”
