A symbol for the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement which questioned the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election was on display at Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s home in 2021, the New York Times reports.
The symbol was an upside-down American flag which supporters of Trump’s debunked claim of a stolen election began displaying after he lost to Biden.
The Times said the flag was seen at Justice Alito’s home in Alexandria, Virginia on January 17, 2021, more than a week after the deadly attack at the Capitol. It is not clear how long the flag flew outside the justice’s home.
Alito admitted that the inverted flag was flown outside his home, but said his wife is to be blamed.
“I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag,” he said in an emailed 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 revelation comes as Justice Clarence Thomas is facing calls to recuse himself from election-related cases after his wife, conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, admitted to attending Trump’s rally that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol and was involved in efforts to overturn the election results.
Justice Thomas has refused to recuse himself and accused his critics of spreading “nastiness” and “lies” about him and his wife while speaking at a judicial conference last week.
Alito will also likely face calls to recuse himself from several high-profile cases pending before the court following the report. The cases involve the election, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and whether Trump is immune from prosecution over election interference.
Take Back the Court, an activist group opposing the overwhelmingly conservative court, said the incident is proof that Alito should not be on the court.
“Sam Alito has disqualified himself from legitimate service on the Supreme Court. It’s hard to imagine a more blatant f-you to the American public than proudly displaying a vestige of a failed coup attempt on the country you’re supposed to serve, right on your front lawn,” the group’s president, Sarah Lipton-Lubet, said in a statement.
“If the wife of one sitting Supreme Court justice helping incite an insurrection wasn’t enough for Congress to issue subpoenas to these extremists, perhaps another sitting justice proudly displaying memorabilia from that insurrection will be,” she added.
