After the 2020 presidential election, as some Trump supporters falsely claimed that President Biden had stolen the presidency, many of them posted upside-down American flags outside their homes, on their cars, and in online posts. He held up an amazing symbol.
One of the homes flying the upside-down flag at the time was the residence of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. in Alexandria, Virginia, according to photos and interviews with neighbors.
According to the image, an upside-down national flag was flown on January 17, 2021. Supporters of President Donald J. Trump, some brandishing the same symbol, rioted at the Capitol about a week ago. Biden's inauguration is just three days away. Alarmed neighbors took photos, some of which were recently obtained by The New York Times. Word of the flag came back to court, people who worked there said in interviews.
While the flag was flying, the court was still wrangling over whether to hear the 2020 election case, a decision that Justice Alito lost. In the coming weeks, the justices are expected to rule on two climactic cases surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, including whether Trump has immunity for his actions. Their decisions will determine the extent to which he will be held accountable for his attempts to overturn the last presidential election and his chances for re-election in the next presidential election.
“I had no involvement whatsoever in raising the flag,” Justice Alito said in an emailed statement to the Times. “This was temporarily installed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor using offensive and derogatory language on a yard sign.”
Judicial experts said in interviews that the flag clearly violates ethics rules that seek to avoid even the appearance of bias, raising questions about Justice Alito's impartiality in cases related to the election and the Capitol riot. He said it was possible.
Ethics experts said the mere impression of political opinion could be problematic. “It could be his spouse or someone else living in the home, but it shouldn't be left in the yard as a message to the world,” said Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia.
This is “like putting up a 'Stop the Steal' sign in your yard, and it's a problem when trying election-related lawsuits,” she says.
The judge's wife, Martha Ann Alito, had been involved in an argument with another family in the district over an anti-Trump sign on their lawn, but given the timing and the severity of the symbol, the judge's wife, Martha Ann Alito, said in an interview. , the neighbors interpreted the upside-down flag as follows. Political statements by the couple.
The long-standing ethics rules of lower courts and the recently adopted ethics rules of the Supreme Court emphasize the need for judges to maintain independence and avoid political statements and opinions on matters that may come before them. There is.
“You always want to be proactive in ensuring fairness,” Jeremy Fogel, a former federal judge and director of the Berkeley Institute of Justice, said in an interview. “The best thing to do is to make sure you don't have anything like that in front of your house.”
The court has repeatedly warned staff against expressing partisan views in public, according to guidelines distributed to court staff and seen by the Times. According to the court's internal rule book and a 2022 memorandum that restates the ban on political activity, displaying signs or bumper stickers is not allowed.
The court declined to answer questions about whether these rules also apply to judges.
The exact length of time the flag was flown outside Alito's residence is unknown. In a Jan. 18, 2021 email reviewed by The Times, a neighbor wrote to a relative that the flag had been upside down for several days at that point.
Neighbors say the quiet sanctuary of his street, home to Republican and Democratic residents, has been strained by conflict in recent years. Before and after the 2020 election, Neighboring families held up anti-Trump signs with expletives. That apparently angered Mrs. Alito and led to an escalation of conflict between her and her family, according to the interview.
Some residents are also putting up with noise and intrusion by protesters, who began showing up outside Alito's mansion in 2022 after the Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights. Heather Ann Irons, who took to the streets to protest and other neighbors joined the demonstrators, said the goal was to “keep the protests private because the decisions affect our personal lives.” It was about bringing it in,” he said.
Six neighbors who saw or were aware of the flag requested anonymity because they did not want to add to the controversy on the block and feared retaliation. Last Saturday, May 11, protesters returned to the streets waving their own flags (“Don't tread on my womb”) and using megaphones to judge Judge Alito, who was delivering his commencement address at Ohio State. broadcast insults. Mrs. Alito appeared through a window and complained to Supreme Court security outside.
Historians have said in interviews that an upside-down American flag is a symbol of emergency and distress, and was first used as an SOS by the military. Although increasingly used as a symbol of political protest in recent decades, flag code and military tradition require that America's most important symbols be treated with respect. Controversial.
For years, both the right and the left have flown upside-down flags in protest against a variety of issues, including the Vietnam War. gun violence, the Supreme Court's overturn of the constitutional right to abortion, and especially the election results. In 2012, Tea Party members turned flags upside down in their homes to show their distaste for President Barack Obama's re-election. Four years later, some liberals advised Trump to do the same after his election.
While Trump won the 2020 election and is trying to overturn it, the gesture became more widespread than ever and “really solidified as a symbol of the 'Stop the Steal' campaign,” the institute said. said researcher Alex Newhouse. University of Colorado Boulder.
flood Social media Post Recommended For Trump supporters inside out their flag purchase The new one will appear upside down.
“As January 6 approaches and Biden is confirmed by the Electoral College, our country will be in trouble!!” one poster wrote on Patriots.win, a forum for Trump supporters, with more than 1,000 “upvotes”. Collected votes. “If you can’t make it to the Washington DC rally, you must do your duty and show your support for the President by flying the flag upside down!!!!”
Local newspapers from Lexington, Kentucky to Sun City, Arizona, to North Jersey wrote about flags going up nearby. Days before Inauguration Day, a Minnesota Senate candidate displayed an upside-down flag on his campaign car.
Flying an upside-down flag outside your home is “a clear sign that you're part of this community that believes America was taken and needs to be taken back,” Newhouse said.
This spring, the justices are already languishing under suspicion from many Americans that any decisions they make regarding the January 6 case will be partisan. Justice Clarence Thomas refused to recuse himself, even though his wife, Virginia Thomas, was directly involved in the effort to overturn the election.
Ethics experts said a similar argument could be made against Alito now that a decision in the Jan. 6 case is expected in just a few weeks. “It's really a matter of appearance and could have a potential impact on public confidence in the court,” Vogel said. “I think it would be better for the court if he stayed out of the cases stemming from the 2020 election. But I'm sure he would see it differently.”
Vogel said if Justice Alito were in another courtroom, the flag could trigger some sort of review to determine whether there was any illegal activity. But because the Supreme Court acts as an adjudicator of its own actions, “there's really no room for that,” he said.
Arik Toller Contribution report. Julie Tate Contributed to research.
