The Alito flag controversy 'makes an ugly situation worse': analysis

17 May 2024

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has been drawing vehement criticism following the publication of an article by the New York Times' Jodi Kantor, who reported that on January 17, 2021, an upside-down American flag was hanging outside Alito's home in Alexandria, Virginia.

At the time, Donald Trump supporters and MAGA Republicans were using an inverted flag as a symbol of the "Stop the Steal" movement and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. And January 17, 2021 was only 11 days after the attack on the U.S. Capitol Building.

Alito told the Times, "I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag. It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor's use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs."

Nonetheless, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, a Never Trump conservative and former GOP congressman, slammed the presence of that symbol outside Alito's home so soon after the Capitol insurrection as "disgusting." And the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson, on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," agreed and slammed Alito as "one of the worst justices" on the High Court since "Roger Taney and the other justices that enabled decades of Jim Crow."

MSNBC's Steve Benen is equally critical of Benen. In a biting column published on May 17, the liberal MSNBC.com columnist argues that the flag controversy "makes an ugly situation worse."

By "ugly situation," Benen is referring to all the controversy that has surrounded the Roberts Court's GOP-appointed majority in recent years — from the overturning of Roe v. Wade to ProPublica's reporting on gifts Justice Clarence Thomas has received from billionaire Harlan Crow.

"Alito didn’t disavow the upside-down flag or deny its significance," Benen argues. "He did, however, blame his wife — which is every bit as unpersuasive as it seems…. Alito doesn't exactly have a deep reservoir of credibility he can turn to in response to a controversy like this one."

The MSNBC columnist and "Rachel Maddow show" producer continues, "We are, after all, talking about a sitting justice who has earned a reputation as the High Court's most unyielding ideologue…. These latest revelations, in other words, are gross on their face, but they're even more offensive given the larger pattern of highly dubious conduct."

This controversy, according to Benen, comes at a time when the High Court's reputation has already suffered considerably.

"Ethics scandals. Leaked rulings. A deteriorating public image. Radical and unpopular decisions," Benen writes. "Growing assumptions that the justices are partisans who pick a preferred conclusion and then work backwards to justify it. Alito's latest controversy — the latest in a series — makes an ugly situation worse. If (Chief Justice John) Roberts doesn't realize that he needs to get his house in order, he’s making a terrible mistake."

Steve Benen's full MSNBC column is available at this link.

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