'About as dishonest as it gets': Alito slammed by neighbors over 'really bad' flag display
Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito's display of an obscure flag carried by insurrectionists on January 6 outside of his New Jersey vacation home has angered both legal experts and Democrats alike. But now, the conservative jurist's own neighbors are speaking out.
The Daily Beast recently reported that several of Alito's neighbors in the Long Beach Island community are both dismayed and alarmed about his display of the "Appeal to Heaven" flag (also known as the Pine Tree flag) between July and September of last year. The Beast's Justin Rohrlich interviewed neighbors of Alito on all sides of the political spectrum, and found there was almost universal disgust with both his brazen display of a far-right symbol and its reflection on the judiciary as a whole.
One local resident the Beast referred to as "Stan" said the display of the Pine Tree flag was "about as dishonest as it gets."
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"How far do we go before we normalize a lot of abnormal behavior?" Stan said. "Confidence in the judiciary has been shaken down to its bedrock... What [the right wing] is really good at, is being really bad."
One unnamed woman who lives close enough to the judge that she can see his house through her windows told the Beast that she felt that it was inappropriate for Alito to be "flying a flag showing his political position" when he has a job that requires him "to be impartial."
"He’s entitled to his opinion, but I don’t think it should be so obvious when you’re a Supreme Court justice," the woman said.
Despite one resident who identified himself to the Beast as "Eddie" — who said he voted for President Barack Obama twice but isn't a fan of President Joe Biden —said the Long Beach Township area is generally more conservative-leaning. However, that didn't stop members of the community from protesting outside of his home in August of 2022 after the Court voted to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision just months prior. A Facebook event created for the demonstration invited "pissed off neighbors" to "Protest Samuel Alito, arrogant American leader from New Jersey at his beach home." There is now a permanent security detail posted outside of the justice's house.
The Pine Tree flag display was just the latest flag controversy for the George W. Bush-appointed justice. The New York Times reported earlier this month that an upside-down American flag was seen flying outside of his Alexandria, Virginia mansion in January of 2021, just days before Biden's inauguration.
In that instance, Alito blamed his wife, Martha-Ann, for the display, saying it was done in response to a neighbor who displayed a sign using profanity to criticize former President Donald Trump. However, he notably did not claim ignorance of the flag's association with the far-right "Stop the Steal" movement that sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Senators Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) — who chair the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Budget Committee, respectively — sent a letter to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts requesting a meeting to discuss how he plans to hold Justices Alito and Clarence Thomas accountable. The senators say Alito's flags are a violation of the Supreme Court's self-imposed ethics guidelines, and that Thomas' failure to disclose whether a luxury RV loan from a wealthy businessman was forgiven could be a violation of federal tax law. Both have called on Alito to recuse himself from cases the Court is currently reviewing that pertain to both the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol.
Click here to read the Beast's report in full (subscription required).