Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito shares a moment with his wife Martha-Ann after returning from a lunch break during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006 in Washington. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito supported his wife’s “right” to make “her own decisions” on Wednesday in response to Democratic senators who demanded his recusal from Jan. 6 cases following the revelation that Martha-Ann Alito made a point to hoist an upside-down American flag outside of their home, a decision she defended as an “international sign of distress” amid a neighborhood dispute over an anti-Trump sign rather than an act of solidarity with the “Stop the Steal” movement that animated the attack on the Capitol.
In a Wednesday letter to Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Alito asserted that their calls for his recusal were unpersuasive, and so he rejected those calls out of hand, whether over the upside-down flag in Virginia or the “Appeal to Heaven” flag flown at their New Jersey beach vacation home.
The justice who wrote the opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade and the federal right to abortion, returning the issue to the states, emphasized in the letter that his wife has a “right” to make “her own decisions.”
“She makes her own decisions, and I have always respected her right to do so,” Alito said, while also stating he had “no involvement” in the flying of either flag.
“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,” he said.
More Law&Crime coverage: Prominent judicial advocacy group says Alito ‘can’t be trusted with American democracy’ and calls for him to ‘recuse from any case related’ to Trump or Jan. 6
Defending Martha-Ann’s “legal right to use the property as she sees fit,” the justice said his wife’s “reasons for flying the flag are not relevant for present purposes[.]”
“I note that she was greatly distressed at the time due, in large part, to a very nasty neighborhood dispute in which I had no involvement,” he wrote. “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.”
Alito was referring to the use of the C-word, which neighbor Emily Baden in a New York Times interview acknowledged saying, claiming that her husband did not say it.
“Aside from putting up a sign, we did not begin or instigate any of these confrontations,” Baden reportedly added.
As for Alito, he rejected calls for recusal by writing 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[.]”
“My wife is fond of flying flags. I am not,” the justice said, claiming that neither he nor his wife were “aware” of a “connection” between the “Appeal to Heaven” flag and “Stop the Steal.”
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
