The Worst Supreme Court Justice. Is it "Coke Can" Clarence Thomas or is it this reprehensible dude Samuel Alito? Good news: you get two votes. They are both totally corrupt and compromised.
By Mark Sumner
Daily Kos Staff
The New York Times reported on Thursday evening that an upside-down American flag was seen flying over Justice Samuel Alito’s home in the weeks following the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. The inverted flag—historically, signifying an emergency—became a symbol for Donald Trump supporters who wanted to overturn the 2020 election.
Images show the flag flying at Alito’s home on Jan. 17, while the Supreme Court was considering whether to hear a case involving results of the 2020 election.
Alito is blaming the pro-Trump flag on his wife. In an email statement to the Times, Alito wrote, “I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag. It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”
The sign in the neighbor’s yard was reportedly an “anti-Trump” sign. While there is reporting that Martha-Ann Alito argued with neighbors over the sign, there’s no indication that it included language personally attacking her or her husband. Even if it had, that wouldn’t validate a Supreme Court justice making a clear signal of political preference on issues before the court.
How long Alito flew the flag isn’t clear, though it was there for several days, according to one email the Times reviewed— but judicial experts consulted by the Times say that this was a “clear violation of ethics rules.”
In a September 2021 appearance with a right-wing podcaster, former Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell outlined how Alito was supposed to play a role in a last-minute legal effort to block the counting of electors.
“We were filing a 12th Amendment constitutional challenge to the process that the Congress was about to use under the Electoral Act provisions that simply don’t jibe with the 12th Amendment to the United States Constitution,” said Powell. “And Justice Alito was our circuit justice for that.”
That case wasn’t filed weeks in advance. It was filed while insurrectionists were swarming the Capitol. And it appears that only the steadfast action of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in bringing Congress back to order and completing the count that evening may have prevented Alito from delaying the confirmation of Joe Biden’s victory.
The case before the court while Alito was signaling his support for Trump involved counting of mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania. The state Republican Party originally brought its application for a stay of a state Supreme Court decision to Alito in October, but Alito, joined by Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas, denied the request to hear the case before the election. Four days after the election, Alito issued an order requiring that the state segregate late-arriving mail-in ballots to await the Supreme Court decision.
Though the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately allowed the ballots to be counted, Alito, along with Kavanaugh and Thomas, voted against the ruling and wrote dissenting opinions.
This isn’t the only time that Martha-Ann Alito was in the middle of an issue before the court. In 2023, she leased land to an oil and gas company, collecting between $100,000 and $250,000, just a month after her husband wrote the majority opinion in a case that radically scaled back the enforcement powers of the Environmental Protection Agency and opened more land to oil and gas drilling.
Like Thomas, whose wife was directly involved in Jan 6. events, Alito isn’t just conservative; he’s committed to eroding government power to help his billionaire friends. Any pretense that Alito has a judicial philosophy in election matters other than helping Trump is exactly that—pretense.
Rather than interpreting the law and the Constitution, the Supreme Court has become part of the process of destroying both, most recently by saving Trump by agreeing to hear his request for immunity. In that case, Alito and other conservative justices made it clear that they weren’t about to let something as trivial as the facts stand in the way of providing a ruling that gives Trump what he needs.
“I’m not discussing the particular facts of this case,” Alito said during oral arguments.
“I’m not concerned with this case,” Neil Gorsuch said.
“I’m not focused on the here and now of this case,” Kavanugh chimed in.
As it turns out, an upside-down flag still signals an emergency. In this case, it’s a whole nation under threat from Supreme Court justices putting their support for Trump above the law.
The New York Times reported on Thursday evening that an upside-down American flag was seen flying over Justice Samuel Alito’s home in the weeks following the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. The inverted flag—historically, signifying an emergency—became a symbol for Donald Trump supporters who wanted to overturn the 2020 election.
Images show the flag flying at Alito’s home on Jan. 17, while the Supreme Court was considering whether to hear a case involving results of the 2020 election.
Alito is blaming the pro-Trump flag on his wife. In an email statement to the Times, Alito wrote, “I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag. It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”
The sign in the neighbor’s yard was reportedly an “anti-Trump” sign. While there is reporting that Martha-Ann Alito argued with neighbors over the sign, there’s no indication that it included language personally attacking her or her husband. Even if it had, that wouldn’t validate a Supreme Court justice making a clear signal of political preference on issues before the court.
How long Alito flew the flag isn’t clear, though it was there for several days, according to one email the Times reviewed— but judicial experts consulted by the Times say that this was a “clear violation of ethics rules.”
In a September 2021 appearance with a right-wing podcaster, former Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell outlined how Alito was supposed to play a role in a last-minute legal effort to block the counting of electors.
“We were filing a 12th Amendment constitutional challenge to the process that the Congress was about to use under the Electoral Act provisions that simply don’t jibe with the 12th Amendment to the United States Constitution,” said Powell. “And Justice Alito was our circuit justice for that.”
That case wasn’t filed weeks in advance. It was filed while insurrectionists were swarming the Capitol. And it appears that only the steadfast action of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in bringing Congress back to order and completing the count that evening may have prevented Alito from delaying the confirmation of Joe Biden’s victory.
The case before the court while Alito was signaling his support for Trump involved counting of mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania. The state Republican Party originally brought its application for a stay of a state Supreme Court decision to Alito in October, but Alito, joined by Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas, denied the request to hear the case before the election. Four days after the election, Alito issued an order requiring that the state segregate late-arriving mail-in ballots to await the Supreme Court decision.
Though the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately allowed the ballots to be counted, Alito, along with Kavanaugh and Thomas, voted against the ruling and wrote dissenting opinions.
This isn’t the only time that Martha-Ann Alito was in the middle of an issue before the court. In 2023, she leased land to an oil and gas company, collecting between $100,000 and $250,000, just a month after her husband wrote the majority opinion in a case that radically scaled back the enforcement powers of the Environmental Protection Agency and opened more land to oil and gas drilling.
Like Thomas, whose wife was directly involved in Jan 6. events, Alito isn’t just conservative; he’s committed to eroding government power to help his billionaire friends. Any pretense that Alito has a judicial philosophy in election matters other than helping Trump is exactly that—pretense.
Rather than interpreting the law and the Constitution, the Supreme Court has become part of the process of destroying both, most recently by saving Trump by agreeing to hear his request for immunity. In that case, Alito and other conservative justices made it clear that they weren’t about to let something as trivial as the facts stand in the way of providing a ruling that gives Trump what he needs.
“I’m not discussing the particular facts of this case,” Alito said during oral arguments.
“I’m not concerned with this case,” Neil Gorsuch said.
“I’m not focused on the here and now of this case,” Kavanugh chimed in.
As it turns out, an upside-down flag still signals an emergency. In this case, it’s a whole nation under threat from Supreme Court justices putting their support for Trump above the law.
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