The United States Supreme Court has been mired in controversy for some time, more so since TFG packed it with a bunch of conservative sycophants. The most recent controversy was reported this week but dates back to the weeks immediately following the insurrection attempt on January 6th, 2021. According to photographs and interviews with neighbors, Justice Samuel Alito had an upside-down American flag flying in his yard for an undetermined amount of time in January of that year.
In a statement he emailed to the New York Times, Justice Alito explained that he had nothing to do with it and that it was Mrs. Alito who decided to fly the flag upside down in response to objectionable yard signs their neighbor installed.
That’s an extreme reaction, especially from the family of a Supreme Court Justice who should understand the significance of an upside-down flag.
According to the United States Flag Code “The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.”
Flying the flag upside-down has been co-opted for many different political causes over the years on both sides of the aisle. Most recently it’s been used as a symbol by Trump supporters and MAGA extremists as part of the “Stop The Steal” movement. To them, it symbolizes an election stolen by Joe Biden and a country in danger because of it. That’s all nonsense.
When I was reading about this today I completely spaced out for a second and thought we were talking about Ginni Thomas, Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife. Mrs. Thomas has a well-documented history of pro-MAGA and pro-Trump activities. Those activities put her husband’s involvement in any decisions SCOTUS makes about Trump’s many indictments and lawsuits into question.
Now, we have to examine Alito’s involvement as well.
There’s surprisingly little ethics oversite of The Supreme Court. But this flag business is an actual ethics violation, according to judicial experts. The inverted flag is being used as a message by a political candidate and his supporters. To fly it in his yard gives the appearance of political bias on Alito’s part. Political bias is the only no-no that SCOTUS Judges are held to, especially when they’re involved in deciding election-related cases.
One of two things is happening here. Alito is either a Supreme Court Justice who believes the 2020 election was stolen. In this case, he needs to recuse himself from involvement in any election-related cases brought before the court. Or, he’s a Justice who believes the country is in danger.
It’s hard not to feel like our country is still in danger. Or in danger again. A lot is going on. Growing protests over Gaza. People refusing to vote/protest voting. Trump’s many (many) indictments and the upcoming presidential election are once again dire. There are increasingly restrictive anti-abortion and voter suppression laws being passed. The GOP is a clown car full of idiots who can’t agree on anything except making us all miserable and making themselves rich. Now there are two SCOTUS Justices who need to be investigated for ethics violations with no way to enforce ethics guidelines or remove the justices from their seats without embroiling the country in more drawn-out legal battles that most people won’t understand.
All of the standards of decency that we held previous leaders to have gone flying out the window. As easy as it would be to blame this on Trump’s 2016 election, it’s an issue that has been building for decades. Court reformers and political activists have been warning us, but it’s been much easier to maintain the status quo than trying to imagine reforming the cornerstones of leadership in this country. It will be a lot of work. But, unless we want the Alitos and Thomases of this country to gerrymander and loophole their way into indefinite control, we need to start making changes, or we’ll all be flying our flags upside-down
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It’s been those of those weeks where the bastards are just grinding me down. There are so many callous fuckface republicans out there facing no consequences, following no rules, just doing whatever the fuck. It’s hard to feel anything but pessimism right now, which is what their disgusting pig-selves want (apologies to pigs), so I don’t want to give them that, but, Jesus. Shut up and die, you obsolete trolls.
I went to high school with his son and, if you can believe it, he's also gigantic piece of shit. He got clocked in the head by one of the nicest kid's in my grade because of some political comments he made. He was also furious that one of the handful of POC's at my school got into a college he didn't get into and blamed in on affirmative action. He's is a 100% PAB.