The flag furore: Justice Samuel Alito, his wife, and the Maga radicals

As the final word arbiters of US regulation, on whose rulings presidential elections can cling, supreme court docket justices are supposed to be fashions of integrity and impartiality, stated Ankush Khardori in Politico. 

Who, now, may declare that Justice Samuel Alito suits that description? He has attracted criticism up to now for occurring luxurious holidays with conservative donors who’ve enterprise earlier than the court docket; he additionally allegedly leaked the results of a serious case to conservative activists earlier than the choice was introduced. And he now stands accused of flying insurrectionist flags linked to the far-right.

The New York Occasions has revealed that an upside-down Stars and Stripes flew exterior his Virginia dwelling after the 6 January assault on the Capitol; and that an “Attraction to Heaven” pine tree flag was raised at his New Jersey seaside home final summer season. Each are seen as symbols of the Trumpist “Cease the Steal” motion.

No trigger for controversy

Liberals are clutching at straws, stated The Wall Road Journal. It was apparently Alito’s spouse who raised these flags – and there was no sinister intent. She flew the primary one throughout a feud with an abusive neighbour (an inverted Stars and Stripes is a world sign of misery). 

As for the “Attraction” flag, it was used within the revolutionary struggle and references a 1689 work by John Locke about the proper to overthrow tyranny. Simply because “some bozos introduced it to the 6 January Capitol riot”, it doesn’t suggest that it and Alito are extremist. 

To take heed to critics, you’d suppose Alito was flying a swastika, stated Dan McLaughlin in Nationwide Overview. The “Attraction” flag was personally authorized by George Washington in 1775 and, till this week, had flown at San Francisco’s Metropolis Corridor with out controversy for 60 years.

Alarm bell for voters

To assert that flying this flag proves Alito has change into “a Maga radical” is a stretch, agreed Jonah Goldberg on The Dispatch. However no matter his motivation, for a supreme court docket justice to have an inverted Stars and Stripes exterior his home was “legitimately” seen as bizarre. 

As a minimum, it recommended the looks of inappropriate partiality. For that cause alone, Alito ought to recuse himself from listening to Trump’s election circumstances, stated Ruth Marcus in The Washington Publish. He knew the upside-down flag was inappropriate. 

“As quickly as I noticed it, I requested my spouse to take it down,” he’d stated (it appears she refused to take action, for a number of days). “If he was alarmed then”, American voters have “each cause to be alarmed now”.