Alito To Senate: Drop Dead
He answers to no one.
The Supreme Court is an unaccountable branch of government, and Samuel Alito knows it. Alito and his wife Martha-Ann, who apparently possesses the emotional stability of Yosemite Sam, flew an upside-down U.S. flag — the standard for the “Stop the Steal” movement — outside their Virginia home just weeks after January 6. The New York Times later revealed that the Alitos had another “provocative flag,” one promoting a Christian-dominated government, outside their vacation home in New Jersey, where some people voluntarily vacation.
Alito gallantly blamed his wife for the curious choice in flag decor and pleaded ignorance, but that wasn’t compelling to anyone with a functioning brain stem. We politely requested that the Senate, currently under Democratic control, not-so-politely demand that Alito recuse himself from convicted felon Donald Trump’s assorted treason cases. We’d also like to see Alito explain to the Senate and the public why anyone should believe he’s capable of impartiality regarding the insurrection.
Sheldon Whitehouse and Dick Durbin, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee in the sense that he rests comfortably in a chair for a good portion of his day, sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts meekly suggesting that Alito recuse himself from January 6 cases for the sake of the Supreme Court’s integrity and … the safety of puppies, and Christmas. Roberts didn’t actually bother responding himself, so Alito answered in his assumed role as acting chief justice. Predictably, Alito told Whitehouse and Durbin to go climb their thumbs.
“A reasonable person who is not motivated by political or ideological considerations or a desire to affect the outcome of Supreme Court cases would conclude that this event does not meet the applicable standard for recusal,” Alito declared from his throne of skulls. “I am therefore duty-bound to reject your recusal request.”
The power-mad Supreme Court justice speaks
Alito dismisses anyone with “political or ideological considerations” regarding January 6, even though the flags outside his homes communicate a clear political and ideological position. Alito claims the “Appeal to Heaven” flag dates back to the American Revolution and has a simple “patriotic and religious message.” However, the MAGA cult has co-opted the flag, which Mrs. Alito put up at their vacation home in the summer of 2023, not long after Trump was indicted in New York. The timing is obviously suspicious, but Alito insists that all flag-related issues are solely his wife’s province. I assume he picks up the slack in other areas. Maybe he’s in charge of patio furniture.
“As I have stated publicly, I had nothing whatsoever to do with the flying of that flag,”he said. “I was not even aware of the upside-down flag until it was called to my attention. As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days, she refused. 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.”
As my mother used to say, “That’s what he thinks of you.” My wife is a lawyer, not a Supreme Court justice, but if she told me that flying a flag would compromise her professionally, I’d remove it. We don’t hang my signed Bebe Neuwirth photo from Chicago in a prominent position in the house because she’s smoking a cigarette. I was more “screw my son’s friends, this is Bebe!” but I agreed to compromise.
Alito sounds like he’s talking about an intractable business partner: “We jointly own the Alito and Alito Fascism Shop, so she therefore has the legal right to use the property as she sees fit. There’s nothing I could do.”
“My wife’s reasons for flying the flag are not relevant for present purposes,” he wrote, while mentioning them anyway, “but I know she was greatly distressed at the time due, in large part, to a very nasty neighborhood dispute in which I had no involvement.”
One reason to get Alito under oath is that he’s consistently lied from the jump about the flag fracas. He claimed that their crazy liberal neighbors called his wife a cunt, “the vilest epithet that can be addressed to a woman” (I personally consider “Mrs. Alito” more offensive). According to the New York Times, Mrs. Alito provoked her neighbor, Emily Baden, who admits to the colorful David Mamet language. Alito told his PR person at Fox News that Mrs. Alito had asked the couple to take down an anti-Trump sign near where children waited for the school bus (there was no in-person schooling at the time), and that’s when the gendered insult was hurled, leading Mrs. Alito to fly the upside-down flag as a show of “distress.”
However, Baden and her husband claim that Mrs. Alito was harassing them. “Aside from putting up a sign, we did not begin or instigate any of these confrontations,” Baden said. They even called the cops: “Somebody in a position of authority needs to talk to her and make her stop.” This phone call and a text message indicate that the name-calling occurred in February, weeks after the flag was taken down. Alito repeated his clearly false version of events even after the Times story ran, because that’s what he thinks of you.
“My wife is a private citizen, and she possesses the same First Amendment rights as every other American,” Alito went on. “She makes her own decisions, and I have always respected her right to do so.”
That’s classic Alito trolling. He respects Mrs. Alito’s freak-flag-waving rights but he’s denied American women the right to make decisions about their own bodies. A treason flag has more rights in Alito’s America than a woman’s uterus.
Democrats hefty response is wimpy, wimpy, wimpy.
Durbin’s response to Alito’s rhetorical bird flipping was about as intimidating as Bugs Bunny flexing a muscle. A seemingly despondent Durbin posted on social media:
Justice Alito’s response *clearly* demonstrates why the Supreme Court needs an enforceable code of conduct.
The Committee has been conducting a thorough investigation into years of ethical lapses by some justices on the Supreme Court—and the Committee has been reviewing the latest reporting on Justice Alito as part of this ongoing investigation.
Flying the American flag upside down at his home is a signal of defiance, which raises reasonable questions about bias and fairness in cases pending before the Court.
At the end of the day, the Chief Justice can end this spiraling decline in America’s confidence in our highest Court by taking decisive action to establish a credible code of conduct.
I will continue to pursue what the American people are demanding: Accountability, transparency, and an enforceable code of conduct for Supreme Court justices.
This is so pathetic. Durbin needs to watch those YouTube videos that examine scenes from The Godfather and explain how power works. Durbin’s messages stink of weakness. He keeps begging Roberts to do the right thing, mistakenly assuming that this remotely interests Roberts — the worst chief justice in history. Durbin doesn’t make Roberts and Alito offers they can’t refuse. There’s no reason to think that denying Durbin’s requests would lead to anything but more feckless whining.
Durbin and Whitehouse asked Roberts for a meeting to discuss the Supreme Court’s noticeable lack of ethics, and the chief justice turned them down cold. He’s already previously refused to testify at a Judiciary Committee hearing about Supreme Court ethics. It’s obviously not a compelling topic for him.
“I must respectfully decline your request for a meeting,” Robert said, explaining yet again that our robed masters determine when they should recuse — a laughably corrupt self-governing process. “Moreover, the format proposed — a meeting with leaders only of one party who have expressed an interest in matters currently pending before the court — simply underscores that participating in such a meeting would be inadvisable.”
Roberts is also fond of trolling. He pretends that the Supreme Court is some objective, independent branch of government when it’s obviously a judicial arm of the Republican Party. Then he suggests Democrats have only political motivations for holding the Court accountable.
Meanwhile, Trump, now a convicted felon, applauded Alito for refusing to recuse.
“Alito is a tough guy, and he’s strong and very, very smart, and he put out a great statement today,” the felon said. “I gave him a lot of credit for it.”
Trump is counting on the Supreme Court to help him beat his other, even more serious felony charges. They are now almost a criminal enterprise that operates above the law.
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"she therefore has the legal right to use the property as she sees fit. There’s nothing I could do.”
Interesting theory there, Alito. Let's run it up the flagpole and see who salutes.
That's the joy of how the United States was made, for the pleasure and benefit of those specific kinds of landowner. Because the whole system is designed for them to have majorities that are unable to be dislodged.
And the beauty of this is the Senate, because to get our numbers up we will need Senators in conservative, rural states. So sausage will have to be made if this can be addressed by court expansion. Same as it ever was.