WASHINGTON – Conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Wednesday refused to recuse himself from two pending cases related to former President Donald Trump and the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol following recent news about controversial flags flying on his private properties.
In letters to members of Congress urging his recuse, Alito said the two incidents involving flags at his home in Virginia and a vacation property in New Jersey, first reported by The New York Times, “do not meet the conditions for refusal” set forth in the Supreme Court’s recently adopted code of ethics.
Alito said that in both cases “a reasonable person who is not motivated by political or ideological considerations or the desire to affect the outcome of Supreme Court cases” would conclude that no recusal was necessary. A letter was sent to Democratic senators, while the other was sent to House Democrats.
He added that he had no involvement in the decision to fly either flag, saying both were created by his wife, Martha-Ann Alito.
In the first incident, neighbors said, an inverted U.S. flag was flown in early 2021, shortly after Jan. 6 and President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
In the other incident, a flag linked to conservative Christians with the motto “Appeal to Heaven” was raised at the holiday home the following year.
Both flags were embraced by some Trump supporters who protested the 2020 election results.
Trump praised Alito’s decision not to recuse himself, saying in a Social Posting the Truth Wednesday that he showed “INTELLIGENCE, COURAGE and ‘guts’.”
The former president expanded on those comments during an interview on conservative media personality Dan Bongino’s show Wednesday night.
“Alito is a tough, strong, very, very smart guy, and he made a great statement today,” Trump said. “I gave him a lot of credit for that.”
The Supreme Court is considering two cases that concern January 6: Trump’s claim of presidential immunity in his election interference case and an appeal brought by a man prosecuted for his role on the same day. Decisions must be delivered by the end of June.
Under the Supreme Court’s ethics rules, individual justices have the final say on whether to step aside from cases.
The code of ethics was adopted last year after several ethical lapses were alleged, most notably against Alito and his conservative colleague, Justice Clarence Thomas. It has attracted strong criticism because judges themselves can apply it.
Alito cited the code in his letters, noting that a judge is presumed to be impartial and need only step aside if an “impartial and reasonable person” aware of the facts doubts that the judge can “fairly perform his or her duties.”
Explaining the inverted flag raising in more detail, Alito said his wife was “very distressed” over a “very unpleasant neighborhood dispute” in which he was not involved. The Times had new details about that dispute in a story published Tuesday.
“A house on the street displayed a sign attacking her personally and a man who lived in the house followed her across the street and berated her in my presence using foul language, including what I consider to be the most vile epithet that can be addressed to a woman ” Alito wrote.
He added that as soon as he became aware of the flag he asked his wife to remove it, but “for several days she refused”.
The Times’ account was a little different, with a neighborhood couple saying they called the police at one point because they felt Martha-Ann Alito was harassing them. The Times also reported that the confrontation between the Alitos and their neighbors happened weeks after the inverted flag had already been removed.
“Judge Alito’s story conflicts with the accounts of others involved, and the Supreme Court – alone in the entire government – has no mechanism for getting to the truth,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a statement. statement on Wednesday. The Rhode Island Democrat had previously called for an investigation into the flag incident.
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Alito’s response “clearly demonstrates why the Supreme Court needs an enforceable code of conduct.” Durbin said this month that he did not plan to launch an investigation into the American flag that was flown upside down at Alito’s home.
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee responded by sending a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts asking whether Alito violated the Supreme Court’s code of ethics. They also asked Roberts how he plans to enforce the new code of conduct.
As for the second flag, Alito said he remembered it being raised by his wife, but was unaware of its significance or any connection to the “stop the steal” effort to overturn the election results.
In both cases, Alito stressed that his wife is a citizen who has her own rights to free speech.
“My wife likes to fly flags,” he added. “It is not me.”
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
