A flag carried by US Capitol rioters was displayed last year at a US Supreme Court justice’s vacation home, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, after revelations a similarly provocative flag was flown outside his residence.
US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito last week faced calls by Democrats to recuse himself from cases involving former US president Donald Trump after the Times confirmed an inverted US flag — a symbol of the ex-president’s false election fraud claims — was raised at his Virginia home in 2021.
Then on Wednesday the daily reported an “Appeal to Heaven” flag was flown outside the Alito vacation home in New Jersey last summer.
Photo: Reuters
That flag, like the upside-down US flag, was carried to the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by Trump supporters seeking to block certification of the November 2020 election won by US President Joe Biden.
The newspaper published photographs of the “Appeal to Heaven” flag flying over a property on Long Beach Island, and cited half a dozen neighbors and passersby confirming that the banner flew at the property in July and September last year.
The flag — which bears the words “An Appeal to Heaven” above a green pine tree on a white background — dates back to the US Revolutionary War.
Although it fell into obscurity, over the past few years it became a symbol of support for Trump and a push for a more Christian-centric US government.
Last week 74-year-old Alito, who was nominated by Republican former US president George W. Bush and confirmed in 2006, pushed back on the criticism, saying the upside-down flag was briefly flown by his wife “in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”
The justice has yet to respond publicly to the revelation of the second flag.
The report is certain to draw further ire from Democratic lawmakers who have claimed the initial flag provocation created an appearance of bias and was in conflict with his obligations as a justice of the US Supreme Court, which serves as a pinnacle of judicial authority.
The high court is weighing two cases which address the US Capitol riot, including a Trump claim of presidential immunity in his election interference case.
Rulings are due late next month or early July.
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