Associate Justice Samuel Alito poses during a group photo of Supreme Court justices in Washington, April 23, 2021.
Erin Schaff | Pool | Reuters
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and others on Friday called on Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself from considering cases related to the 2020 election – including the issue of immunity – amid controversy over a topsy-turvy case former President Donald Trump from prosecution – to withdraw US flag that flew outside Alito’s home more than a week after the riots on January 6, 2021.
Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, suggested that conservative Alito was adding to ethical concerns about the court after The New York Times reported Thursday on a photo of the flag flying in front of the House on Jan. 17 of the Virginia judge was shown this way in 2021, three days before President Joe Biden, a Democrat, was set to take office.
Alito told the Times that his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, hung the flag upside down after a confrontation with a neighbor after the election that Trump falsely claimed he had won.
Some Trump supporters who claimed he won the 2020 election displayed the flag in the same way during the invasion of the Capitol and at protests and rallies. According to the U.S. Flag Code, “The flag should never be displayed lowered except as a sign of great distress in cases of extreme danger to life or property.”
Durbin said in a statement: “Flying an upside-down American flag – a symbol of the so-called ‘Stop the Steal’ movement – clearly creates the appearance of bias.”
“Judge Alito should immediately recuse himself from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6 insurrection, including the question of the former president’s immunity in United States v. Donald Trump, which the Supreme Court is currently considering,” Durbin said.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on Trump’s claim of presidential immunity in a federal trial in Washington, D.C., in which he is accused of crimes related to his attempt to reverse Biden’s 2020 election victory enjoys protection from prosecution. Alito and the other justices heard oral arguments in the case in late April.
Clashes broke out between Trump supporters and police and security forces during the storming of the US Capitol in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021.
Olivier Douliery | AFP | Getty Images
“The Court is facing an ethical crisis of its own making, and Judge Alito and the rest of the Court should do everything in their power to regain the public’s trust.”
When asked about the controversy Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters: “I don’t want to comment on the specific report, that reporting.”
“What I can say more broadly is that the President believes that the American flag is sacred, as you have heard him say, and that it deserves due respect in honor of the brave men and women who have served our country and us for generations “We should respect this flag, we should ensure that it is respected in this way, it is sacred,” said Jean-Pierre.
“As for everything else, the conduct or the rejection, that’s for the court to decide.”
The Washington advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics said hanging the flag at Alito’s home called into question his objectivity in a recent Supreme Court decision overturning a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that struck Trump from the This year’s election in this state ruled out insurrection by inciting an insurrection at the Capitol. The hour-long riot disrupted a joint session of Congress, which was meeting that day to certify Biden’s victory over Trump in the Electoral College.
“This appears to be a serious ethical violation and calls into question Judge Alito’s objectivity in Trump v. Anderson and other cases,” said CREW President Noah Bookbinder, citing the name of the Colorado case.
“Judges should avoid even the appearance of bias,” Bookbinder said. “We don’t know exactly who raised the flag, but we know it stayed there for days.”
“Not only has Judge Alito been able to avoid the appearance of bias, he has also spent years deciding cases related to the 2020 election and the attack on the Capitol, despite publicly expressing his obvious affinity for those who “How we wanted to overthrow democracy.”
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Alito said in an emailed statement to the Times: “I was not involved in the raising of the flag at all.”
“It was briefly placed on yard signs by Ms. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of offensive and personally offensive language,” Alito said.
Fox News host Shannon Bream said in a series of social media posts on 21 Friday. “Ms. Alito discussed this with the neighbor.”
“According to Judge Alito, things escalated and the neighbor put up a sign personally addressing Ms. Alito and blaming her for the January 6 attacks,” Bream wrote. “Judge Alito says he and his wife were walking in the neighborhood and there were conversations between Ms. Alito and a man at the house with the sign. Alito says the man engaged in vulgar language.”
“After this exchange, Ms. Alito became distraught and hung the flag upside down “for a short time.” Judge Alito says some neighbors on his street are “very political” and acknowledges “it was a very heated time in January 2021,” Bream wrote.
A spokeswoman for the Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC on Friday.
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2024-05-17 19:51:02
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