The wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito previously said that the American flag inverted flown to the couple’s home in January 2021 was “an international distress signal”, The Washington Post reported Saturday, detailing an encounter around that time between the Alitos and a Post reporter outside the couple’s home.
The flag was no longer displayed when reporter Robert Barnes visited the judge’s home in Alexandria, Virginia, on the day of President Joe Biden’s inauguration to follow up on a related tip, the report said. Martha-Ann Alito demanded that the reporter “get off my property” when she came across the couple leaving their home, the Post said.
According to The Post, Martha-Ann Alito shouted, “It’s an international distress signal!” as Barnes sought information on the matter before the judge led his wife to a car, denying that the flag was related to political protests and saying it was the result of a neighborhood dispute.
Martha-Ann Alito then shouted, “Ask them what they did!” in apparent reference to the Alitos’ neighbors, before grabbing a novelty flag from the couple’s home and shouting: “Ready! Is this better?” after placing it on the pole, according to The Post.
A Post spokeswoman said in the article that the newspaper did not report the interaction at the time “because the flag raising appeared to be the work of Martha-Ann Alito, not the justice system, and was linked to a dispute with her neighbors” and that it was unclear whether it was rooted in politics.
The Post’s report comes as the conservative justice system is embroiled in controversy over displays outside its properties.
The New York Times last week published a photo of the inverted American flag flown over the Alitos’ Virginia home in 2021. Alito said that the inverted U.S. flag was raised by his wife and was a response to a fight with neighbors. The dispute involved a neighbor who posted a sign saying “F**k Trump” near a school bus stop and then a sign attacking his wife, Alito said. The Justice told Fox News the Alitos argued with their neighbor, who at one point used the term “c**t.” His wife then raised the flag inverted.
The inverted flag was a symbol for supporters of former President Donald Trump, who falsely claimed widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
The Times then reported Wednesday that a flag that was on display during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was seen flying outside the Alitos’ vacation home in New Jersey last summer. The “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which dates to the Revolutionary War, has become a symbol for Trump supporters.
The flag revelations drew criticism in Washington, including from Republican Party’s top senators and from Democrats, who called on the courts to recuse themselves from cases involving Trump and the 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Senate Republican Leader John Thune, one of the candidates vying to replace retiring Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, told CNN the flag was a “bad decision.”
“I don’t know how you explain it,” the South Dakota Republican said.
The news also reenergized calls from the left for Congress to promulgate ethics rules for the Supreme Court, an effort has been stalled for months.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, who has been a frequent critic of conservative judges, told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on Thursday that it “raises a serious question” for someone on the nation’s highest court to fly such flags on their properties.
Some Republican lawmakers defended Alitowith Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday that “all the hoopla is way overblown” and accusing Senate Democrats of trying to delegitimize the court.
CNN’s John Fritze, Holmes Lybrand and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.
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