Justice Alito's Jan. 6 Flags Are a Desperate Wake-Up Call for the DOJ

[Celerity]

All three branches of our government have so far failed to do anything about the ethics disaster that has befallen the Supreme Court. It’s time for the DOJ to find its spine.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/justice-alitos-jan-6-flags-are-a-desperate-wake-up-call-for-the-doj



There is no better example of the current skewed state of checks and balances in American government than Justice Samuel Alito’s penchant for displaying insurrectionist symbols at his homes. That Alito can do this freely is but the tip of the iceberg that has already sunk the high court’s legitimacy. Let’s not forget about the rest of the iceberg: the lack of ethics policing for Justices Alito and Clarence Thomas, who’ve accepted enormously valuable benefits in luxury vacations, vehicles, tuition payments for family members (all undisclosed by the justices), and the adoption of a toothless code of ethics after decades of refusing to adopt any code of ethics. But what still lies beneath the surface is the failure of all three branches of our government to do anything about the ethics disaster that has befallen the Supreme Court. And while all three branches are to blame—it is the Executive Branch, via the U.S. Department of Justice—that seems particularly paralyzed.

As first reported by The New York Times, an upside-down American flag—the symbol adopted by supporters of former President Trump’s lies about the 2020 election having been stolen—was flown at Alito’s house on Jan. 17, 2021, three days before President Biden’s inauguration and weeks after Jan. 6 rioters carried that symbol into the Capitol as they stormed it in an effort to stop the peaceful transition of power. On Jan. 17, the United States Supreme Court was still considering whether to hear a case about the 2020 election. Alito excused the flying of the flag by blaming his wife, telling the Times he had nothing to do with it but that she had flown it in response to a neighbor who had put up an anti-Trump sign. He later expanded on this excuse, telling Fox News that a person who lived at the property with the anti-Trump sign had gotten into a verbal argument with Alito and his wife, calling her names, “including the C-word.”



A common indicium of guilt by people accused of crimes is their ability to recall with great specificity details they think are innocuous (e.g., “I was wearing my favorite pair of Bruno Magli shoes”) contrasted with an inability to notice incriminating details (e.g., the trail of bloody footprints leading from the murder scene). Similarly, Alito’s recall of the specifics of this incident with his neighbor seems at odds with his apparently having not noticed a symbol of insurrectionists being run up the flagpole of his own house. But what really hurts Alito’s claim that he knew nothing about the upside-down flag flown at his Alexandria, Virginia, home is the fact that a second insurrectionist flag flew at his New Jersey beach house two years later, in July, August, and September of 2023.

The second flag was the so-called “Appeal to Heaven” flag—or “Pine Tree Flag”— a historical flag from the Revolutionary War that, the Times notes, “is now a symbol of support for former President Donald J. Trump, for a religious strand of the ‘Stop the Steal’ campaign and for a push to remake American government in Christian terms.” Other displayers of that flag have included Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who had it at his office. The “Appeal to Heaven” flag was also carried into the Capitol by rioting Trump supporters on Jan. 6. Evidence of the flag being flown at Alito’s beach house was provided by “[t]hree photographs obtained by The New York Times, along with accounts from a half-dozen neighbors and passers-by,” all of which indicated “that the Appeal to Heaven flag was aloft at the Alito home on Long Beach Island in July and September of 2023. A Google Street View image from late August also shows the flag.” The Times Visual Investigations team deserves a special shout-out for the Google Street View image evidence used against a justice who admires a 17th Century judge— Matthew Hale— who believed men could not rape their wives and who sentenced women to death for being witches.

snip

[Scrivener7]

1. That would be about the 40th desperate wake up call for this DOJ.

[Sky Jewels]

2. Yeah, Garland has priorities other than saving U.S. democracy.

His lack of action has done untold harm to this country.

Those of us who warned that he was not on our side (and got scolded for it repeatedly) have been vindicated.

I fear for our future.

[gab13by13]

3. So, what Alito and Thomas have done violates ethical behavior,

Even the appearance of bias or partisanship is cause for recusal.

Yet we have an FBI Director who is a member of the Federalist Society, the very group that selects the fascist judges. Wray didn't even investigate the complaints against Kavanaugh.

Merrick Garland monitored 11 Federalist Society events, why would we expect him to investigate justices who were chosen by the very organization he attended?

My point is that both Wray and Garland have the appearance of bias or partisanship because of their ties to the Federalist Society.

[MOMFUDSKI]

4. Roberts must make him recuse on many

decisions and make him apologize to the Nation. If Roberts can’t accomplish this he will look the fool he is. We wait

[SWBTATTReg]

5. And where is Garland again? Is he even around doing anything? Sometimes I wonder if he feels like he's a

pseudo–Supreme Court Justice, being that he got overlooked and thus, is in his office now-a-days, acting like a Justice? Isn't this a position where one gets their hands dirty, w/ the nitty-gritty on a day-to-day basis?

I guess that the saying 'Justice is slow' is even more true than I ever thought.

[gab13by13]

6. TSF didn't really pick the justices.

TSF was given a list of names that came from the Federalist Society and TSF picked people from that list.

The federalist Society picks Supreme Court justices.

Christopher Wray is a member of the Federalist Society and Merrick Garland has the appearance of bias because of his attending 11 Federalist society events.

[SWBTATTReg]

7. The point being made here is that ethics are important too, and nothing seems to be happened, and probably

won't.

I guess you have a different point, in that Federalist Society, kind of dictates which candidates are picked/chosen for judgeships or something...I guess. I can't figure out your overall point.

[gab13by13]

8. People like you and me want something done,

The article posted suggests that DOJ should investigate. My point is that the AG and the FBI Director, the people who could investigate Alito have ties to the organization that put Alito in power. Do not Wray and Garland have the appearance of bias?

[SWBTATTReg]

9. Yes, you're right, I do want something done. It is frustrating that I don't see any action (or hardly any)

in things that go on, that stir the emotions in all of us. Makes me wonder who the Justice Dept, the Supreme Court, and others in that rarefied field just want they represent. Sometimes I wonder if we (the common person on the street) have any say what-so-ever. I fear that the answer is NO.

[dalton99a]

10. No shit.