(UnitedVoice.com) – Associate Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr. is facing mounting pressure from the Left to recuse himself from cases involving former President Donald Trump and the January 6 protest on Capitol Hill. He has already refused to do so once. One of his former law clerks is now calling on him to recuse himself from the cases.
The Controversy
In May, The New York Times broke a story that there was an upside-down American flag flying outside of Alito’s home on January 17, 2021, three days before President Joe Biden’s inauguration. Sailors have traditionally flown upside-down flags as a sign of distress. In recent years and at that time, it was also a symbol associated with the movement that claimed Trump won the 2020 election.
During the time the flag was up, Alito and the other justices were still considering a case regarding the 2020 election. When Alito was questioned about the flag, he claimed his wife Martha-Ann was the one who hoisted it up after a spat with the neighbor. The justice accused the neighbor of calling his wife the C-word.
The neighbor, Emily Baden, claims Martha-Ann Alito was mad about an anti-Trump sign in her front yard. However, that argument in which she called the justice’s wife a name was in February, long after the photos of the upside-down American flag were taken, raising questions about whether the justice lied.
The Supreme Court justice also had another flag on his New Jersey beach home. It’s all white with a lone pine tree. That flag was tied to the January 6 movement, as well as a far-right Christian nationalism movement.
When two Democratic senators wrote to Chief Justice John Roberts and asked him to force Alito’s recusal, both men responded with refusals. A former law clerk of Alito’s was appalled.
Law Clerk Calls for Recusal
Susan Sullivan was a clerk for Alito during the time he was on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. She spoke to MSNBC and described being “aghast” when she saw the photos of the upside-down flag. She said it doesn’t matter who put it there, “it cannot do anything other than raise a reasonable inference of bias.”
Sullivan also said she has always believed Alito was “an honorable man” who had “integrity.”
In an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Sullivan called for her former boss to recuse himself from the January 6th and Trump cases. She said the flag calls into question whether he could be impartial in cases involving the former president. She said it’s about the independence of the court and its credibility.
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