Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has spoken out at length about two Jan. 6-related flags flown at his Virginia and New Jersey homes—and has squarely aimed the blame at his wife.
“My wife is a private citizen, and she possesses the same First Amendment rights as every other American,” Alito wrote in two letters to members of Congress on Wednesday in which he refused to recuse himself from Supreme Court cases related to Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. “She makes her own decisions, and I have always respected her right to do so.”
Alito added that his wife’s decision to fly an upside-down American flag outside their Virginia home in Jan. 2021 resulted from a “very nasty neighborhood dispute.” An ‘Appeal to Heaven’ flag, associated with Christian nationalist movements and co-opted by Capitol rioters, was flown outside the couple’s beach home on the Jersey Shore last summer.
“I recall that my wife did fly that flag for some period of time, but I do not remember how long it flew,” Alito wrote in his first comments on the second flag incident. “And what is most relevant here, I had no involvement in the decision to fly that flag. My wife is fond of flying flags. I am not.”
“The two incidents you cite do not meet the conditions for recusal,” he continued. “As I have stated publicly, I had nothing whatsoever to do with the flying of that flag. I was not even aware of the upside-down flag until it was called to my attention.”
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