Sam Alito believes you — and, perhaps, his colleagues — are stupid
Alito defiantly refused to recuse himself from January 6 or Trump-related cases in a letter sent to members of Congress on Wednesday.
Justice Sam Alito, who is a problem, went even further on Wednesday than I thought he would go in refusing to recuse himself from the Trump or January 6 cases currently pending at the U.S. Supreme Court.
In rejecting the calls for his recusal due to the various flags flown over his various homes that also happened to be flags flown by those who supported the overturning of the 2020 presidential election, Alito lashed out in defiance and with a tone that can only suggest that he believes we are all stupid — including, possibly, his colleagues.
Alito suggested as much in many ways on Wednesday.
At 10 a.m. Thursday, meanwhile, the justices are due to release opinions. We could even get the Trump immunity ruling. Alito could be a part of — or even writing in — the case, despite the fact that Wednesday’s letter, far from answering the ethical questions, only solidified the basis for them.
Here’s a list of demeaning quotes from Alito’s letter responding to Sens. Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse’s letter from last week calling on his recusal:
“As I have stated publicly, I had nothing whatsoever to do with the flying of that flag. I was not even aware of the upside-down flag until it was called to my attention.” Alito, who served in the military, wants you to believe that he did not notice an upside-down flag flying in front of his home.
“As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days, she refused.” Come off it.
“My wife and I own our Virginia home jointly. She therefore has the legal right to use the property as she sees fit, and there were no additional steps that I could have taken to have the flag taken down more promptly.” Is he describing a landlord-tenant relationship, or his family? Beyond that, this was a Supreme Court justice in January 2021, as the Twenty-Fifth Amendment was being discussed, impeachment was being pursued, and fences were being erected, but this man decided not to push whether there was an upside-down flag flying in front of his home? This honestly is as distressing an admission to me as anything Alito has said throughout this scandal. (Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern dig down on an aspect of this, Alito’s one-woman feminism.)
“[S]he was greatly distressed at the time due, in large part, to a very nasty neighborhood dispute in which I had no involvement. A house on the street displayed a sign attacking her personally, and a man who was living in the house at the time trailed her all the way down the street and berated her in my presence using foul language, including what I regard as the vilest epithet that can be addressed to a woman.” First, see Jodi Kantor’s Tuesday report at The New York Times for more clarity on the disputed timeline of all of this. Then, return to this and realize that a Supreme Court justice is telling you that he thinks — even by his apparently inaccurate timeline — flying an upside-down flag is the appropriate, or at least an acceptable, response to a neighborhood political disagreement that his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, has that gets personal.
“The second incident concerns a flag bearing the legend ‘An Appeal to Heaven’ that flew in the backyard of our vacation home in the summer of 2023. I recall that my wife did fly that flag for some period of time, but I do not remember how long it flew.“ This time, Alito saw a flag with the word “appeal” on it flying from his vacation home and he — in his defense — is telling us that he, a Supreme Court justice, was absolutely incurious as to the meaning of such a flag flying on his public-facing property.
“[W]hat is most relevant here, I had no involvement in the decision to fly that flag.” This was, of course, the flag up on his property long enough that Google Street View captured it. Notably, he doesn’t even give us the “I asked her to take it down” line here.
“My wife is fond of flying flags. I am not.” He is mocking us.
“I was not familiar with the ‘Appeal to Heaven’ flag when my wife flew it. She may have mentioned that it dates back to the American Revolution, and I assumed she was flying it to express a religious and patriotic message. I was not aware of any connection between this historic flag and the ‘Stop the Steal Movement,’ and neither was my wife. She did not fly it to associate herself with that or any other group, and the use of an old historic flag by a new group does not necessarily drain that flag of all other meanings.” This is the most questionable part of his letter, because it makes statements of fact about his and his wife’s knowledge (or lack thereof), and, in so doing, makes (or does not make) a couple of other notable statements. He claims not to know why she flew it, saying only that she “may have mentioned” how old it is, but then also states absolutely that it was unrelated to the “Stop the Steal Movement.” First, it’s odd that he doesn’t say why she did fly it; he just states one thing she “may have” said and that it was not about “Stop the Steal.” Second, note that he made no similar disclaimer about the upside-down flag.
“As I said in reference to the other flag event, my wife is an independently minded private citizen. She makes her own decisions, and I honor her right to do so. Our vacation home was purchased with money she inherited from her parents and is titled in her name. It is a place, away from Washington, where she should be able to relax.” Again, is he her tenant? Also, what is the Alitos’ definition of “relax”? Finally, and though I have said this elsewhere, I don’t think it’s made it into Law Dork: According to The New York Times’s timeline of when this second flag was seen flying, it is entirely possible that it was flying over their vacation home during the time when Sam Alito sold shares of Anheuser-Busch stock and bought shares of Molson Coors stock. Just two independently minded people acting in complete accord with one another and with the furthest right-wing political figures in the country. What a coincidence!
As demeaning as his letter is, the end result — Alito’s recusal refusal — was essentially already known.
As I wrote last week, “The real question now is what the court does about it.”
The answer very well might be nothing.
But, Chief Justice John Roberts and the other justices should think very hard about their next steps because their colleague, Justice Sam Alito, has made it perfectly clear with this response that he thinks the ethics rules are a joke and that we are rubes for even thinking that he should be held to them.
Wait, can we talk about the fact that he says he had no involvement in the neighborhood dispute, and two sentences later says the neighborhood berated his wife in his presence? So he just stood there while his wife was called “the vilelest epithet that can be hurled at a woman”?!
Like you, I doubt CJ Roberts will do anything about Alito's very trolly nose-thumbing at the American public.
But this moment needs to be: a) seared into the minds of voters, as it is indicative of how unbound and reckless the Republican/conservative majority is, and b) thrown right back in the faces of Supreme Court justices whenever they speak admonishingly about how bad it is that the public disdains and mistrusts them.
We are being entirely appropriate in our opprobrium. The plummeting regard Americans have for SCOTUS is a result of their shoddy and even corrupt work product. *This is the legacy of the Roberts Court.*
They may sting at our outrage slightly, but they clearly only care inasmuch as it impacts their feels. It does not impact their legal behaviors, so we know what they value more: Power.