LETTER FROM WASHINGTON

The brick front of a house. A gray car in front of the garage door. A picket fence. The absolute banality of an affluent neighborhood in Alexandria, a city in the state of Virginia near Washington, DC. But one detail in the middle of the photo crushes this peaceful environment: An American flag is hoisted upside down on a flagpole planted in the lawn.

The photo was taken on January 17, 2021, three days before the swearing-in of the new president, Joe Biden. The house is that of conservative US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. Eleven days earlier, supporters of Donald Trump had stormed the Capitol, threatening to disrupt the peaceful transition of power. The upside-down national flag, once synonymous with a distress call among the military, has become one of the popular symbols of the "Stop the Steal!" movement, which purports to denounce imaginary fraud in the November 2020 presidential election.

The recent revelation of this photo by the New York Times has unsurprisingly provoked a torrent of commentary. This support for a cause that is not only partisan but insurrectionist, from one of the country's nine highest judges and within an institution whose credibility has been badly shaken, has forced each side to position itself for or against Alito.

The justice himself reacted in such an awkward way as to fuel the controversy. In a statement to the Times, Alito explained that he had nothing to do with the flag's installation: "It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor's use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs." Martha-Ann Alito, obviously very easily offended, is said to have acted in this way in response to a sign insulting Trump. The weakness of this argument is glaring. Alito could have immediately asked his wife to take down the upside-down American flag. He ignored it, and thereby endorsed it.

A few days after the first article, the New York Times published a second, this time about the Alito home on Long Beach Island in New Jersey. Another much-debated flag, showing a pine tree, was spotted there between July and September 2023; dubbed "Appeal to Heaven," it originated during the American Revolution. In contemporary times, however, specialists point to its appropriation by the Christian nationalist movement. And this flag was also visible outside the Capitol on the fateful day of January 6.

This revelation in the press comes as the Supreme Court is expected to rule on Trump's request for full presidential immunity before its term concludes at the end of June. If granted, even in part, such a decision would condemn the federal investigation against the businessman for his involvement in the conspiracy to prevent the peaceful transition of power following Biden's victory. Trump has been indicted in this investigation, but special prosecutor Jack Smith is doomed to a period of stagnation as he waits for the Supreme Court to finally rule.

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