A report about a U.S. flag flying upside-down in January 2021 outside Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s home caused a furor in Washington, with the White House saying on Friday President Joe Biden believes the flag is sacred and a senior senator calling for Alito to step aside from two key cases.
Alito told the New York Times that the flag had been placed by his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, on a pole outside their house in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia after a dispute with a neighbor over a sign on the neighbor’s lawn critical of Republican then-President Donald Trump.
The inverted U.S. flag became a symbol of protest by Trump supporters, including those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as he sought to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden with false claims of widespread voting fraud and a “stolen” election.
Democrat Dick Durbin, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, called on Alito to recuse from two cases currently pending before the Supreme Court that involve the 2020 election and Capitol attack. Other Democrats, including Senator Richard Blumenthal and Representatives Hank Johnson and Adam Schiff, issued similar calls.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at a regular briefing sidestepped a question about whether Biden believes Alito can rule impartially on cases related to the Jan. 6 events.
“I cannot speak to if he should recuse himself, how he should move forward on the court,” Jean-Pierre said of Alito. “That is for the court to decide.”
But Jean-Pierre added that she had spoken to the Democratic president about the matter and that he feels “that the American flag is sacred and we should be respecting that flag.” Jean-Pierre also mentioned the “brave men and women who have sacrificed, given their lives to protect our nation.”
Earlier in the day, Durbin said, “Flying an upside-down American flag – a symbol of the so-called ‘Stop the Steal’ movement – clearly creates the appearance of bias.”
The first of the two cases Durbin mentioned is Trump’s bid for immunity from prosecution on federal criminal charges for trying to reverse his 2020 defeat.
The second one involves a challenge by a Pennsylvania man to a federal criminal charge of obstruction that he faces for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. The case has implications for Trump, who faces the same charge in the election-related criminal case brought against him by Special Counsel Jack Smith.