CNN
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Chief Justice John Roberts on Thursday rejected a meeting request from Democratic lawmakers who needed to debate two provocative flags hoisted at Justice Samuel Alito’s properties.
“Separation of powers considerations and the significance of preserving judicial independence counsel in opposition to such appearances,” Roberts wrote in a letter launched by the Supreme Courtroom.
The chief justice’s letter landed a day after Alito told lawmakers in his own letters that he is not going to recuse in instances involving the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol. Alito stated that his spouse, Martha-Ann Alito, hoisted an upside-down American flag at their Virginia residence in January 2021 in response to a neighborhood spat. He stated she additionally raised the “Appeal to Heaven” flag at their New Jersey property final summer season.
“My spouse is keen on flying flags,” Alito wrote. “I’m not.”
Each flags have change into related to supporters of former President Donald Trump and have been waved on the Capitol through the riot. Alito stated in his personal letters Wednesday that he was not conscious of their trendy political which means.
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, had demanded Alito’s recusal in these instances and likewise sought the meeting with Roberts “to debate further steps to handle the Supreme Courtroom’s ethics disaster.”
In his temporary response Thursday, Roberts wrote {that a} assembly with leaders “of just one social gathering who’ve expressed an curiosity in issues at present pending earlier than the courtroom” solely served to underscore his perception “that collaborating in such a gathering can be inadvisable.” (Republican leaders of the Judiciary Committee have been copied on the assembly request and Roberts’ response.)
The Supreme Courtroom is contemplating two appeals tied to the 2020 election and the assault on the US Capitol. In a single, the justices are weighing Trump’s declare of immunity from particular counsel Jack Smith’s election subversion prices.
In one other, a January 6 rioter is difficult an obstruction cost filed in opposition to him by prosecutors, arguing that Congress meant that regulation to use to individuals destroying proof, not storming a authorities constructing.
Durbin and Whitehouse didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
This story has been up to date with further particulars.