'Improper and dumb': Federal judge skewers Sam Alito for 'Stop the Steal' symbol

A federal judge made the rare decision Friday to speak out against a Supreme Court Justice whose actions outside the nation's highest court he characterized as "improper" and "dumb."

Judge Michael Ponsor, appointed to a Massachusetts federal court district by former President Bill Clinton, subjected Justice Sam Alito to harsh criticism over the upside-down flag reported to have flown outside his family home.

"The fact is that, regardless of its legality, displaying the flag in that way, at that time, shouldn’t have happened," Ponsor writes in a New York Times editorial.

"To put it bluntly, any judge with reasonable ethical instincts would have realized immediately that flying the flag then and in that way was improper. And dumb."

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This scathing rebuke of Alito comes about a week after the Times revealed a judge tasked with determining the future of former President Donald Trump's federal election interference case hung a "stop the steal" symbol in his yard.

Alito and his fellow panelists are expected to rule this summer on Trump's claim that "presidential immunity" protects him from felony charges that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election.

Now calls are mounting for Alito to recuse himself from any cases related to the U.S. Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021. While House Democrats raised arguments about Alito's ethics, Ponsor side-stepped this issue to consider another element: Alito's intelligence.

"In four decades as a federal judge, I have known scores, possibly hundreds, of federal trial and appellate judges pretty well," Ponsor wrote.

"I can’t think of a single one, no matter who appointed her or him, who has engaged or would engage in conduct like that."

Ponsor argued Alito had crossed a line that threatens to erode the nation's dwindling trust in the Supreme Court.

"Flying those flags was tantamount to sticking a 'Stop the steal' bumper sticker on your car," he wrote. "You just don’t do it."