Martha-Ann Alito, wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, previously said that hanging the American flag upside down in her home in January 2021 was “an international distress signal.” according to for a Saturday story in The Washington Post.
According to the Post report, a former reporter for the paper went to the Alitos home in northern Virginia when he spotted a tip on the flag, a symbol related to the “Stop the Steal” efforts. The flag was no longer flying when the reporter arrived home on the day of President Biden’s inauguration, but when the reporter encountered the Alito couple leaving the house, Martha-Ann told him to “get off my property.”
When the Post reporter asked Martha-Ann about the inverted flag, she reportedly responded, “It’s an international distress signal!”
Samuel Alito previously said he had “no involvement” in the flag flying upside down at his home, which was reported by The New York Times last week to have flown on January 17, 2021.
“I had no involvement in the raising of the flag,” the judge told the Times when asked about the flag. “It was briefly put up by Ms. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”
Alito faced another flag-based controversy this week when a second flag used by rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was reported by the Times to have been displayed outside the judge’s vacation home.
Democrats have come out against Alito over reports about the flags, with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) saying they show “a pattern.”
“The first instance of the American flag in danger mode [Alito] dismissed as a casual indiscretion by his wife, who was moved by a confrontation with a neighbor. The second one really shows a pattern,” Durbin said.
“This is not a casual indiscretion. This is a conscious decision by the Alito family to publicize their political feelings. This does the Supreme Court no favors, and it should accept responsibility for recusing itself from cases involving the Trump administration,” the Illinois Democrat said.
Former national security adviser John Bolton is among those defending Alito against the charges, calling the attacks on justice “outrageous, outrageous and unacceptable” in comments Wednesday.
The Hill has reached out to Alito for comment.
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