(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) The New York Times published an article on May 17, 2024, in which the far-left newspaper claimed that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito flew an upside-down American flag at his Alexandria, Va., home in protest of the stolen 2020 presidential election.
Photographs and eyewitness accounts from neighbors confirmed that Justice Alito’s home displayed the inverted flag on Jan. 17, 2021 — just days after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol event and shortly before Joe Biden’s “inauguration,” the Times reported.
In his statement to the Times, Justice Alito denied any personal involvement with the flying of the flag, attributing it to Martha-Ann Alito, his wife. He also said that the flag was a reaction to provocative and insulting yard signs posted by neighbors, rather than a political statement.
“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,” he said.
Flying a flag upside down is traditionally recognized as a distress signal “in instances of extreme danger to life or property,” which makes it not an inherently political statement.
Despite the explanation, the leftist newspaper still promoted the idea that Justice Alito was too biased, citing the incident as evidence and saying that it was “a clear violation of ethics rules, which seek to avoid even the appearance of bias and could sow doubt about Alito’s impartiality in cases related to the election and the Capitol riot.”
“It might be his spouse or someone else living in his home, but he shouldn’t have it in his yard as his message to the world. [This is] the equivalent of putting a ‘Stop the Steal’ sign in your yard, which is a problem if you’re deciding election-related cases,” Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia, said.
