What happened
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, already facing criticism over an upside-down U.S. flag flown outside his Virginia home in January 2021, had another flag popular with Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol rioters displayed at his New Jersey beach house last summer, The New York Times said Wednesday. Alito said last week his wife had raised the inverted flag amid political arguments with neighbors and he "had no involvement whatsoever." He declined to comment on the "Appeal to Heaven" flag flown outside his beach house.
Who said what
The Revolutionary War–era white-and-evergreen "Appeal to Heaven" flag had fallen "into obscurity" until it was recently adopted by Christian nationalists supporting Donald Trump and a "religious strand of the 'Stop the Steal' campaign" to keep him in office after he lost, the Times said. "Judges are not supposed to give any impression of bias" or partisanship.
"At this point it is difficult to make any reasonable case for Alito's impartiality," Noah Bookbinder, the president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said to The Associated Press. At minimum, "he must not sit on cases about the 2020 election or the insurrection he appears to have supported."
What next?
Just as fellow conservative Justice Clarence Thomas "has ignored calls to recuse himself from cases related to the 2020 election" because his wife tried to help overturn the results, "there has been no indication Alito would step aside from the cases," the AP said. "Public trust in the Supreme Court, meanwhile, recently hit its lowest point in at least 50 years."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
The week’s best photosIn Pictures A monstrous parade, a hungry tortoise, and more
-
The Week Unwrapped: Should we be eating less fat – or more?Podcast Plus who will benefit from the surprise Dutch election result? And how can art improve our health?
-
AI models may be developing a ‘survival drive’Under the radar Chatbots are refusing to shut down
-
Dutch center-left rises in election as far-right fallsSpeed Read The country’s other parties have ruled against forming a coalition
-
Judge rules US attorney ‘unlawfully serving’Speed Read Bill Essayli had been serving in the role without Senate confirmation
-
Trump ends Asia trip with Xi meeting, nuke threatSpeed Read Trump had spent the last six days in Asia
-
Voting Rights Act: SCOTUS’s pivotal decisionFeature A Supreme Court ruling against the Voting Rights Act could allow Republicans to redraw districts and solidify control of the House
-
Supreme Court points to gutting Voting Rights Actspeed read States would no longer be required to consider race when drawing congressional maps
-
‘An exercise of the Republicans justifying their racist positions’instant opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Supreme Court: Judging 20 years of RobertsFeature Two decades after promising to “call balls and strikes,” Chief Justice John Roberts faces scrutiny for reshaping American democracy
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feudSpeed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
