A “Stop theft” symbol was displayed at Alito in 2021: report

A symbol affiliated with former President Donald Trump’s misleading “Stop the Steal” message was on display in Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s home in 2021, a New York Times investigation found Thursday.

The symbol in question was an upside-down American flag, which supporters of Trump’s stolen election conspiracy theory began displaying after his loss to President Joe Biden in 2020. Neighbors who saw and photographed the flag confirmed to the Times that it was floating on January 17. , 2021. The conservative justice admitted it but declared that it was the doing of his wife.

“I had no involvement in the display of the flag,” he said in a statement to the newspaper. “It was briefly placed by Ms. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on street signs.”

The Times discovered in interviews with neighbors that Alito’s wife, Martha-Ann Alito, had a constant argument with neighbors who had placed an anti-Trump sign with an expletive on their lawn.

You can see a photo of the flag in question in the Times article.

Jan. 17 was just over a week after Trump supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to stop the ceremonial count of electoral votes that gave Biden the presidency. More than a thousand people involved in the riot have been charged with crimes related to that day.

As the flag was raised, the Supreme Court was deciding whether to hear several cases regarding the integrity of the 2020 election. Alito was in favor of hearing arguments, but ultimately sided with the losing side. Currently, the court is poised to rule on two cases related to the Capitol riot, including one that could grant Trump presidential immunity from some of the dozens of charges he faces.

The Supreme Court’s ethics code calls on justices to avoid making political statements or sharing opinions on issues that might come before the court.

Take Back the Court, a group opposed to the conservative shift the court has taken in recent years, said the incident is proof that Alito has no place on the court.

“Sam Alito has disqualified himself from his lawful office on the Supreme Court. It’s hard to imagine a more blatant f–you to the American public than proudly displaying a remnant of a failed coup attempt against the country you’re supposed to serve, right on your front lawn,” said the group’s president, Sarah Lipton-Lubet. said in a statement.

Alito’s wife is not the only Supreme Court spouse to be embroiled in an election conspiracy scandal. Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife, Ginni Thomas, promoted and attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House that preceded the Capitol insurrection. Her husband refused to recuse himself from matters related to the Capitol attack.

“If the wife of a Supreme Court justice helping incite an insurrection wasn’t enough for Congress to issue subpoenas to these extremists, perhaps another sitting justice proudly displaying memories of this insurrection will,” she said.