...
By Jordan King
Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
People are calling for Samuel Alito to be impeached over the controversy surrounding the upside-down U.S. flag seen flying outside his house in Fairfax County, Virginia, in January 2021.
The Supreme Court Justice is facing growing heat about his wife Martha-Ann Alito displaying what had become a symbol of the "Stop the Steal" campaign, which aimed to overturn President Joe Biden's 2020 election win.
It has come up again this week, after The New York Times published an article to debunk Alito's version of events, with many people on social media saying Alito should recuse himself from cases involving the 2020 election and the January 6 riots or be impeached.
Read More
Donald Trump Congratulates Samuel Alito For His ‘Courage’4 min read
Supreme Court Justices Could Be Forced Off Trump Case: Congressman5 min read
Alito Says ‘Reasonable’ People Aren’t Mad He’s on Supreme Court Trump Case4 min read
Political commentator Robert Reich posted a video to his 1.5 million followers saying: "Justice Samuel Alito should be impeached."
Reich explains the flag's association with the Stop the Steal campaign and then goes on to reference more recent reports of an Appeal to Heaven flag being photographed outside Alito's New Jersey home in 2022. Also known as the Pine Tree flag, it essentially calls for the American government to be remade in more Christian terms.
"It's become a symbol of Christian nationalists who believe the law of the land is not the constitution, but the law of God as they interpret it," Reich says.
"Do you see the problem with a Supreme Court Justice flying it?" Reich asks, "The Supreme Court has been considering cases related to January 6, including whether President Trump should be immune from prosecution for his actions that day.
"How can Alito pretend to judge these questions fairly? He can't."
Reich continued: "If Alito does not recuse himself from cases involving Trump, Congress must impeach him. The public's trust in the Supreme Court is at stake."
...
Similarly, journalist Seth Abramson posted: "You don't just ask corrupt civil servants with multiple corruption scandals under their belts but also—critically—a lifetime job appointment to not be corrupt. You have to *impeach* them when they violate their oath."
It comes as a petition calling for Alito to be impeached—over a different scandal involving accepting and not declaring gifts from conservative billionaire Paul Singer—reached more than 75,000 signatures.
Alito wrote a defiant letter responding to all this heat on Wednesday, saying his wife had a "legal right to use the property as she sees fit" and repeating claims about how upset she was over a "very nasty" dispute with neighbors at the time.
He said: "I was not even aware of the upside-down flag until it was called to my attention. As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days, she refused."
Alito also said he was not aware of the connection between the inverted flag and the Stop the Steal movement.
Addressing the Appeal to Heaven flag, Alito wrote: "I recall that my wife did fly that flag for some period of time, but I do not remember how long it flew. And what is most relevant here, is I had no involvement in the decision to fly that flag."
Newsweek has contacted Alito for any further comment via email to the Supreme Court's Public Information Office.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines