Justice Alito Rejects Calls to Recuse from January 6 Cases, Denies Involvement in Flying Upside-Down Flag

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is “duty-bound” to reject calls to recuse himself from court cases involving former president Donald Trump and January 6, he wrote in a letter to his Senate detractors on Wednesday.

Alito’s statement came in response to a letter drafted last week by Senators Richard Durbin and (D., Ill.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) that claimed “two incidents involving the flying of flags created an appearance of impropriety.” The letter refers to a series of recent New York Times reports which revealed that an upside-down flag was flown outside of Alito’s home in Virginia and that a colonial-era “Appeal to Heaven” flag was flown outside of his beach house in New Jersey. Elected Democrats and other critics of the justice have argued that the flags reveal a level of political partisanship that should disqualify Alito from hearing cases involving Trump or the January 6 riot.

“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 wrote of the upside-down flag. “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.”

“I am confident that 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 the events recounted above do not meet the applicable standard for recusal. I am therefore required to reject your request,” he added.

Alito also said that he had no involvement in the flying of the “An Appeal to Heaven” flag in the backyard of the family’s vacation home during 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. And what is most relevant here, I had no involvement in the decision to fly that flag,” he wrote.

Alito’s detractors have argued that the “Appeal to Heaven,” or Pine Tree, flag is an established symbol of the “Stop the Steal” movement — a connection with which the Justice was unfamiliar, he said.

“I was not aware of any connection between this historic flag and the ‘Stop the Steal Movement,’ and neither was my wife,” he wrote. “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.”

Regardless, Democrats have launched a full-scale attack on Alito, aided in part by the Times which has run a slew of stories on the incidents. Durbin called the flag incident “yet another example of apparent ethical misconduct by a sitting justice, and it adds to the Court’s ongoing ethical crisis,” and begged Alito to recuse himself “for the good of our country and the Court.”