'It's bonkers': Former Alito law clerk says he must recuse Trump cases after flag stunt
Susan Sullivan used to clerk for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and admired him for his integrity and honesty.
But after he and his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, were exposed for flying an upside down American flag outside of their Alexandria, Virginia home, she became aghast by it and believes he should bow out of any Trump-related cases before the high court.
Sullivan, a political science professor at Temple University who served as law clerk to Alito when he sat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, appeared on MSNBC's "The Last Word" with Lawrence O'Donnell to discuss her impassioned stance that her former boss must recuse himself to protect the country.
"Irrespective of why it is there, who put it there — it shouldn't have been placed there," Sullivan said. "That flag is incendiary. And it cannot do anything other than raise a reasonable inference of bias."
Sullivan stated as much in her op-ed that she penned in The Philadelphia Inquirer days earlier.
"Justice Alito may or may not be biased in favor of the former president, but the flag flying upside down at his home in the past unequivocally telegraphs reasonable questions about his impartiality in cases involving Trump," it reads. "These questions, separate and apart from the crisis in confidence that such conduct may raise for the court, mandate Justice Alito’s recusal from these cases."
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The Alitos were found out to have hoisted two provocative flags seen their properties.
There was the upside-down US flag hoisted at his home in Virginia in early 2021 and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag at their New Jersey vacation home last summer.
Alito blamed the inverted American flag on his wife who had been involved in a “very nasty neighborhood dispute."
For Sullivan, flying these flags, especially the upside down flag in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, is simply wrong.
"I don't think any reasonable person could not think that that telegraphs at least the appearance of bias," she said. "And that is so important."