An upside-down American flag was reportedly spotted flying outside the home of the conservative US supreme court justice Samuel Alito during the closing days of the 2020 election.
The inverted flag is a symbol that’s become associated with former president Donald Trump’s false claims that Joe Biden stole the election.
Used by some Trump supporters during the January 6 Capitol Hill riots, the upside-down flag was seen outside Alito’s home on 17 January 2021 – 10 days after the riots in DC and three days before Joe Biden’s inauguration, according to a report in the New York Times on Friday
The image of the flag outside Alito’s home is likely to renew fears of partisanship among political appointees on the conservative-leaning court. The court has found itself at the epicenter of US culture wars in recent years for the rulings it has made, including a rollback of reproductive rights and a relaxation of restrictions relating to gun ownership.
Middle-aged Black man with balding pate and white hair, glasses, in black judicial robes, appears to speak.
Clarence Thomas: Washington is a ‘hideous place’ of ‘nastiness and lies’
Read more
According to the Times, word of the upside-down flag made its way back to the court as the justices were considering an election case related to ballot-counting in Pennsylvania. Alito, an appointee of George W Bush, was on the losing side of the decision.
“I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag,” Alito said in a statement to the paper. “It was briefly placed by Mrs Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”
Alito’s wife, Martha-Ann, had been in a dispute with a neighbor about an anti-Trump sign on their lawn. Neighbors said they interpreted the Alito family’s flag as a political statement, and one said it had hung outside the home for several days
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/art ... -down-flag
