Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito rejected senatorial calls for him to recuse himself from cases involving Jan. 6 defendants or former President Donald Trump after his latest controversy involving the presence of an upside-down American flag at his house.
Calls for conservative Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself from certain Supreme Court cases began ... [+]
Alito, a conservative justice on the court, said in a letter to Congress on Wednesday that his wife was the reason the two flags with symbols associated with Jan. 6 and Trump were flying at his houses in recent years, saying that means he does not need to recuse himself.
Alito argued in the letter that his wife has a First Amendment right to display what she wants outside of their homes—one of which is jointly owned and one that is “titled in her name”—and that he had “no involvement” in the decisions to fly the flags.
Alito wrote the letter in response to Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who requested a meeting with Chief Justice John Roberts last week to ensure that Alito recused himself in cases related to the 2020 election because of the “appearance of impropriety.”
Earlier this month, The New York Times reported the upside-down flag was outside of the Alitos’ home in 2021, and a second flag tied to Trump supporters was displayed outside the home last year.
“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. As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days, she refused,” Alito wrote in the letter.