An upside-down flag, adopted by Trump supporters contesting the Biden victory, flew over the justice’s front lawn as the Supreme Court was considering an election case.
After the 2020 presidential election, as some Trump supporters falsely claimed that President Biden had stolen the office, many of them displayed a startling symbol outside their homes, on their cars and in online posts: an upside-down American flag.
One of the homes flying an inverted flag during that time was the residence of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., in Alexandria, Va., according to photographs and interviews with neighbors.
The upside-down flag was aloft on Jan. 17, 2021, the images showed. President Donald J. Trump’s supporters, including some brandishing the same symbol, had rioted at the Capitol a little over a week before. Mr. Biden’s inauguration was three days away. Alarmed neighbors snapped photographs, some of which were recently obtained by The New York Times. Word of the flag filtered back to the court, people who worked there said in interviews.
It actually means that the person flying the flag is in distress. Like if a school is being held hostage, but the hostage takers know it will look suspicious if the flag doesn't get put up and let's them put it up, then the person putting it up could put it up upside down to indicate to everyone outside of the school that they're in distress.
While the flag was up, the court was still contending with whether to hear a 2020 election case, with Justice Alito on the losing end of that decision. In coming weeks, the justices will rule on two climactic cases involving the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, including whether Mr. Trump has immunity for his actions. Their decisions will shape how accountable he can be held for trying to overturn the last presidential election and his chancesfor re-election in the upcoming one.
“I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag,” Justice Alito said in an emailed statement to The Times. “It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”
There really is nothing anybody in power can do. He’s a Supreme Court justice. Appointment for life. The only ways for him to vacate his position is to die or to be impeached. This means that not only would the House have to impeach him, but more importantly, the Senate would have to convict and remove him; by a two-thirds majority, no less.
With the current spread in both the house and senate, you’d be better off becoming an expat.
They can stack the court if they get a majority in both (which would increase election chances since you'd be giving people hope they won't live in a theocracy ruled an unelected supreme council. Fuck we're even less democratic than Iran on paper.), they can marginalize the court by very publicly refusing to enforce their rulings, they can have them assassinated.
The alternative is expecting to win every single election for the next 40 years or so until they die of natural causes. And then being willing to ban the filibuster to actually get a dem pick in.
What you're basically saying, which has been true for some time now, is that our government no longer functions as it was meant to function. All of those protections were put into place to keep individuals or small groups from seizing power. It seems the forefathers never anticipated that a strong majority would be in favor of overthrowing democracy. Or maybe they just figured that if a strong majority was in favor of it, then so be it. If that's the case then I guess it's operating exactly as it was intended to function.
The US only has one non-lethal way to remove a federal judge: impeachment. And that requires a 2/3 vote in the Senate, which won't happen any time soon because the Republicans there favor his support of treason.
Judicial experts said in interviews that the flag was a clear violation of ethics rules, which seek to avoid even the appearance of bias, and could sow doubt about Justice Alito’s impartiality in cases related to the election and the Capitol riot.
Jokes on you, experts! The Supreme Court didn’t have ethics rules back in 2021. Checkmate!