Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. on Wednesday declined to recuse himself from two cases stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Justice Alito said in letters to Democrats asking him to step down that his wife, Martha-Anne, had flown the flags at his home in Virginia and at a beach house in New Jersey.
“My wife loves to fly flags,” the judge wrote. “Neither am I. She was solely responsible for putting up the flagpoles at our residence and our vacation home, and has flown many different flags over the years.
In the weeks following the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Joseph R. An upside-down American flag flew outside the judge’s home in Alexandria, Va., a symbol adopted by Trump loyalists to challenge Biden Jr.’s election victory. In a letter Wednesday, Justice Alito reiterated his interpretation of the flag, while revealing that he was unaware of it in the first place and that his wife had resisted his appeals to remove it.
“I have nothing to do with flying the flag,” he wrote. “I was not aware of the inverted flag until it was brought to my attention. As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to put it down, but she refused.
He said he was unable to remove the flag.
“My wife and I jointly own our Virginia home,” the judge wrote. “Therefore, she has a legal right to use the property as she sees fit, and I could not have taken any additional steps to have the flag removed sooner.”
Notably, Justice Alito’s letter does not deny that the upside-down flag expresses support for the “Stop Stealing” movement.
On the other hand, Justice Alito wrote that the “Appeal to Heaven” flag at his New Jersey beach home did not convey the meaning that critics claimed.
“I don’t know, and neither does my wife, that there is any connection between that historic flag and ‘Stop Stealing,'” he wrote. “She did not fly it to associate herself with that group or any other group, and the use of an old historic flag by a new group does not necessarily drain that flag of all other meaning.”
He added: “As I said about the other flag incident, my wife is a free-spirited private citizen. She makes her own decisions and I respect that right.
In total, he said he would not disqualify himself from the two cases.
“A reasonable person unmotivated by political or ideological considerations or unwilling to influence the outcome of Supreme Court cases,” Justice Alito wrote, “does not meet the applicable standard of review.”
The court recently adopted a code of conduct for judges that Justice Alito said would require him to participate in cases. He was quoted as saying.
A provision of the code states that “a justice is presumed to be impartial and has a duty to sit unless disqualified”.
The second rule states, “A judge must disqualify himself in a case where the impartiality of justice is reasonably questioned, that is, an impartial and reasonable person, aware of all the relevant circumstances, doubts whether justice can fairly discharge his duties.”
Both incidents, he wrote, did not satisfy the second rule, “and therefore I have a duty to sit down.”
Justice Alito said his wife was entitled to express her views and that the upside-down flag she raised in Virginia was prompted by a bitter dispute with a neighbor.
“My wife is a private citizen, and like every American, she has First Amendment rights,” the judge wrote. “She makes her own decisions, and I always respect that right.”
“He has made many sacrifices to accommodate my service on the Supreme Court,” he wrote, “including the humiliation of having to endure numerous, loud, obscene and personally insulting protests in front of our house, which continues to this day.
Justice Alito said his wife loved flags.
“In addition to the American flag, he has seen other patriotic flags (including a favorite flag for thanking veterans), college flags, flags supporting sports teams, state and local flags, flags of family members’ ancestral countries, flags of places we’ve visited, seasonal flags, and religious flags. “
They wrote that their beach house on Long Beach Island, New Jersey, was Mrs. Alito’s property.
“Our vacation home was purchased with money she received from her parents and is titled in her name,” he wrote. “It’s a place where she can relax, away from Washington.”
