New York Times: Another controversial flag spotted outside an Alito property

CNN
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A flag that was on show through the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol was flown exterior Supreme Court docket Justice Samuel Alito’s trip dwelling in New Jersey, in keeping with a report within the New York Instances on Wednesday.

Citing pictures and interviews with neighbors, the Instances reviews that the “Enchantment to Heaven” flag was seen on show at his property final summer season. The flag, which has a historical past relationship to the Revolutionary Struggle, has additionally change into an emblem for supporters of former President Donald Trump. The flag is white and features a inexperienced evergreen tree and the phrases “An Enchantment to Heaven” on the prime.

Alito and the Supreme Court docket didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, who has been a frequent critic of conservative justices, instructed CNN’s Kate Bolduan on Thursday that it “raises a severe query” for somebody on the nation’s highest court docket to fly such flags at his residence and trip dwelling.

“I don’t suppose it’s a coincidence on this second occasion. I feel he’s talking fairly clearly as to his political loyalties, and it’s a disgrace. When it will get proper right down to it, our courts and justices don’t have a military to implement their opinions. They don’t have the cash to determine an account for media management. What they’ve is the respect for integrity of the American folks,” Durbin mentioned.

It’s the second revelation in as many weeks a couple of controversial show exterior Alito’s property. The New York Instances final week revealed {a photograph} of an inverted American flag raised at Alito’s dwelling in Virginia in 2021. Alito mentioned the upside-down US flag was raised by his spouse and was a response to a spat with neighbors.

The episode has drawn hearth from critics, together with Democrats and key GOP senators, who’ve referred to as on the justice to recuse himself from circumstances involving Trump and the 2021 assault on the Capitol.

Just like the inverted US flag, the Enchantment to Heaven flag — also called the Pine Tree flag — was seen through the assault on the Capitol.

Home Speaker Mike Johnson confronted blowback for displaying the identical flag exterior his workplace final yr earlier than assuming the management publish. The Enchantment to Heaven flag stays exterior his workplace as of Wednesday.

Johnson instructed CNN on Wednesday that “it’s George Washington’s flag. It goes again to the founder’s period. I’ve all the time flown that flag.”

“It has nothing to do with that,” Johnson mentioned, referring to “cease the steal” protests.

Alito, together with the opposite eight justices, appeared on the Supreme Court docket bench Thursday morning to announce opinions. Two had been written by Alito, together with in a contentious racial gerrymandering case, and he briefly learn synopses of the choices aloud.

Alito sometimes wears a stern, even dour, expression, and nothing was markedly totally different Thursday morning. After tersely studying from the textual content in entrance of him, Alito took a sip from his tumbler and leaned again in his tall black leather-based chair as traditional. Nothing from him or the opposite justices betrayed the rising controversy surrounding the excessive court docket.

The Alitos’ flag selections are gaining consideration partly as a result of a number of high-profile circumstances are at present pending earlier than the excessive court docket involving the election and subsequent assault on the US Capitol, together with the blockbuster query of whether or not Trump might declare immunity from federal election subversion costs.

One other case offers with a January 6 defendant who’s difficult an obstruction cost filed by federal prosecutors for his position within the assault.

Some Republican lawmakers defended Alito on Wednesday, with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that the “whole hoopla is significantly overstated” and accusing Senate Democrats of making an attempt to delegitimize the court docket.

“From the far left, the court docket is the one establishment that they don’t management,” he mentioned on “The Supply.”

Home Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan echoed these sentiments, pushing again on criticism of Alito and two different conservative justices.

“Justice Alito is an impressive justice. The left is all the time out to go after him, Choose Thomas — in fact, we all know what they’ve performed to Choose Kavanaugh,” Jordan instructed CNN’s Manu Raju. “They’re all good guys, have performed a very good job on the court docket.”

He added that Alito mustn’t recuse himself from the January 6 case.

This story has been up to date with extra developments.

CNN’s Joan Biskupic, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Morgan Rimmer, Manu Raju and Shania Shelton contributed to this report.