Second flag carried by Jan. 6 rioters displayed outside house owned by Justice Alito, report says

WASHINGTON — A second flag of the type carried by rioters during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was displayed outside a home owned by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Last summer, an “Appeal to Heaven” flag flew outside Alito’s beach vacation home. An upside-down American flag — another symbol carried by rioters — was seen at Alito’s home outside Washington less than two weeks after the violent attack on the Capitol.

News of the inverted American flag sparked an uproar last week, including calls from senior Democrats for Alito to recuse himself from matters related to former President Donald Trump.

Alito and the court declined to respond to requests for comment on how the “Appeal to Heaven” flag flew and what it was intended to express. He previously said the upside-down American flag was raised by his wife during a dispute with neighbors, and that he had no part in it.

According to three photos obtained by the Times, the white flag with a green pine tree was seen at Alito’s beach house in New Jersey. The footage was taken on separate dates in July and September 2023, although it was not clear how long the plane flew in total or how much time Alito spent there.

The flag dates back to the Revolutionary War, but in recent years has become associated with Christian nationalism and support for Trump. It was carried by rioters, fueled by Trump’s “Stop the Steal” movement, animated by false claims of election fraud.

Republicans in Congress and state officials have also displayed the flag. House Speaker Mike Johnson hung it in his office last fall, shortly after winning the gavel. A spokesperson said the speaker appreciates the rich history and was given the flag by a pastor who served as guest chaplain for the House.

Alito, meanwhile, is participating in two ongoing Supreme Court cases related to Jan. 6: whether Trump has immunity from prosecution for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and whether a specific charge can be used against rioters. He also participated in the Court’s unanimous ruling that states cannot bar Trump from the ballot using the “insurrection clause” added to the Constitution after the Civil War.

News of the second flag led to renewed calls for Alito to distance himself from the Trump-related matters. “At this point, it is difficult to make any reasonable case for Alito’s impartiality. It can and should be questioned. As a result, he should not be involved in matters involving the 2020 election or the insurrection he appears to have supported,” said Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The group represented Colorado voters in the Supreme Court’s “insurrection clause” case that sought to bar Trump from the ballot.

There is no indication that Alito would relinquish the cases.

Another conservative judge, Clarence Thomas, has also ignored calls to recuse himself from cases related to the 2020 election due to his wife Virginia Thomas’s support for efforts to overturn Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden .

Public confidence in the Supreme Court recently reached its lowest point in at least 50 years.

Legal codes of ethics focus on the need for judges to be independent, avoiding political statements or opinions on matters they could decide. The Supreme Court has long been without its own code of ethics, but adopted one in November 2023 despite continued criticism over secret trips and gifts from wealthy benefactors to some judges. However, the code lacks an enforcement instrument.