Democrats and the press can always count on a handful of Senate Republicans to participate in the latest far-left hoax to undermine the political opposition by delegitimizing bulwark institutions. The latest effort comes from The New York Times fabricating a flag controversy with a series of hysterical stories claiming Justice Samuel Alito is a far-right provocateur because of a pair of flags flown at his East Coast residences. Several Republican senators have joined in the criticism.
Earlier this month, The New York Times reported on an American flag that apparently flew upside down at the judge’s home in Virginia. The flag, according to the paper, was flown amid the turbulent month of President Joe Biden’s inauguration, when the banner of distress was sometimes used to depict tacit support for Republicans’ efforts to “Stop the Steal.”
“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,” the Times reported. Now, later this spring, “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.”
The court’s upcoming decisions show why The New York Times is just now raising an issue with the banner more than three years later. The nine justices will soon issue opinions that threaten to strike at the heart of the Democrats’ 2024 campaign strategy. Those cases will determine whether former President Donald Trump enjoys a high enough degree of presidential immunity to escape far-left prosecution and whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) has the authority to confer excess prison time on Jan. 6 defendants.
The paper quoted supposed ethics experts to discredit Justice Alito as an impartial juror, despite Alito’s explanation that his wife, and not Alito himself, had raised the banner following a dispute with a neighbor over a profane anti-Trump sign.
“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,” the Times reported.
Federalist Senior Legal Correspondent Margot Cleveland, who spent decades as a permanent law clerk, where she developed an expertise in legal ethics, explained why the upside-down flag debacle doesn’t require Alito to do anything.
“For simplicity’s sake, let’s assume Mrs. Alito placed a ‘Stop the Steal’ sign in the front yard of the home she shares with her husband. Such a sign would qualify as political activity within the meaning of the various ethical codes governing judicial conduct,” Cleveland wrote. The sign, she added, “would clearly fit in the ‘should not engage in other political activity’ prohibition” outlined in legal ethics rules. “But it wasn’t Justice Alito who hung the upside-down flag we are hypothesizing was instead a ‘Stop the Steal’ placard — it was Mrs. Alito. And the Code of Conduct does not govern a spouse’s actions.”
Senate Republicans, however, still jumped on the media bandwagon to give CNN this headline: “Key GOP Senators Criticize Alito Over Upside-Down Flag Incident.” The lawmakers who made objections to Alito’s alleged misconduct include Utah’s Mitt Romney, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and John Thune of South Dakota, who wants to be the next GOP Senate chief.
“I don’t know how you explain that,” Thune said of Alito’s invented flag controversy.
“It creates a bad image,” Graham said. “It created a situation that we’re all talking about. So, yeah, I think it was a mistake.”
Romney encouraged lawmakers to “take a look at it.”
“It’s very unfortunate,” Romney said.
The Times followed the initial flag story last week with an even more hysterical piece to rebrand an iconic banner from the American Revolution as an emblem of insurgency. On Tuesday, the Times reported that an “Appeal to Heaven” flag, also known as the Pine Tree flag, was flown outside Alito’s New Jersey home on Long Beach Island last summer.
“Two years after an upside-down American flag was flown outside the Virginia home of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., another provocative symbol was displayed at his vacation house in New Jersey,” the Times wrote. “This time, it was the ‘Appeal to Heaven’ flag, which, like the inverted U.S. flag, was carried by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”
Never mind that the Pine Tree flag, which was designed by George Washington’s personal secretary at the start of the war for independence, had just recently flown over San Francisco’s city hall last year.
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