Alito rejects calls to recuse himself from flag controversy

(WASHINGTON) – Justice Samuel Alito is rejecting calls to step aside from Supreme Court cases involving former President Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 defendants because of the controversy over the flags flying over their homes.

In letters to members of Congress on Wednesday, Alito said his wife was responsible for flying an inverted flag over their home in 2021 and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag at their New Jersey beach house last year.

Neither incident merits his dismissal, he wrote.

“I therefore have a duty to reject your request for refusal,” he wrote.

The court is considering two key cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack by a mob of Trump supporters on the Capitol, including the charges the rioters face and whether Trump has immunity from prosecution on election interference charges.

Alito has rejected calls from Democrats in the past to recuse himself on other issues.

The New York Times reported that an inverted American flag was seen at Alito’s home in Alexandria, Virginia, less than two weeks after the attack on the Capitol. The newspaper also reported that an “Appeal to Heaven” flag was flown outside the judge’s New Jersey beach house last summer. Both flags were carried by protesters who violently stormed the Capitol in January 2021, echoing Trump’s false claims of election fraud.

Alito said he didn’t know the inverted flag was flying above his home until it was brought to his attention. “As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days she refused,” he wrote in nearly identical letters to Democrats in the House and Senate.