CNN
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Supreme Courtroom Justice Samuel Alito’s spouse beforehand stated the inverted American flag flown on the couple’s home in January 2021 was “an worldwide sign of misery,” The Washington Post reported Saturday, detailing an encounter throughout that point between the Alitos and a Put up reporter exterior the couple’s house.
The flag was not displayed when the reporter, Robert Barnes, visited the justice’s home in Alexandria, Virginia, on the day of President Joe Biden’s inauguration to comply with up on a associated tip, the report stated. Martha-Ann Alito demanded the reporter “get off my property” as he got here throughout the couple leaving their house, The Put up stated.
In line with The Put up, Martha-Ann Alito yelled, “It’s a world sign of misery!” as Barnes sought data on the matter earlier than the justice led his spouse to a automotive whereas denying the flag was associated to political protest and saying it stemmed from a neighborhood dispute.
Martha-Ann Alito then shouted: “Ask them what they did!” in obvious reference to the Alitos’ neighbors, earlier than retrieving a novelty flag from the couple’s house and yelling, “There! Is that higher?” after inserting it on the flagpole, in line with The Put up.
A spokeswoman for The Put up stated within the article that the newspaper didn’t report on the interplay on the time “as a result of the flag-raising seemed to be the work of Martha-Ann Alito, somewhat than the justice, and linked to a dispute along with her neighbors” and that it was unclear it was rooted in politics.
The Put up’s reporting comes because the conservative justice has turn out to be embroiled in controversy over shows exterior his properties.
The New York Occasions final week published a photograph of the inverted American flag raised on the Alitos’ house in Virginia in 2021. Alito stated the upside-down US flag was raised by his wife and was a response to a spat with neighbors. The dispute concerned a neighbor who posted an indication saying “F**okay Trump” close to a faculty bus cease after which an indication attacking his spouse, Alito stated. The justice told Fox News the Alitos received into an argument with the neighbor, who used the time period “c**t” at one level. His spouse then flew the inverted flag.
The upside-down flag was a logo for former President Donald Trump’s supporters who falsely claimed widespread fraud within the 2020 presidential election.
The Times then reported Wednesday {that a} flag that was on show in the course of the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol was seen flying outside the Alitos’ trip house in New Jersey final summer time. The “Enchantment to Heaven” flag, which dates to the Revolutionary Warfare, has turn out to be a logo for supporters of Trump.
The revelations concerning the flags have drawn criticism in Washington, together with from key GOP senators and from Democrats, who’ve known as on the justice to recuse himself from instances involving Trump and the 2021 assault on the Capitol.
Senate Republican Whip John Thune, one of many contenders vying to switch retiring Minority Chief Mitch McConnell, instructed CNN the flag was a “unhealthy determination.”
“I don’t understand how you clarify that,” the South Dakota Republican stated.
The information has additionally reenergized calls on the left for Congress to enact ethics rules for the Supreme Courtroom, an effort has been stalled for months.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, who has been a frequent critic of conservative justices, instructed CNN’s Kate Bolduan on Thursday that it “raises a severe query” for somebody on the nation’s highest court docket to fly such flags at his properties.
Some Republican lawmakers have defended Alito, with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday that the “whole hoopla is enormously overstated” and accusing Senate Democrats of attempting to delegitimize the court docket.
CNN’s John Fritze, Holmes Lybrand and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.