I think if SCOTUS wants to be taken seriously, and at least some of the members on the court don’t care, then they should try to be ethical and also avoid any appearance of conflict of interest. Both Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas have had plenty of ethical lapses that they are ignoring, and then sometimes whine that they should get respect. Nope. You can’t expect people to respect you without actually doing actions that are deserving of respect. And I’m not talking here about their opinions, which I usually don’t agree with, but such is life, but, again, about a higher standard for SCOTUS judges.
When it was discovered that the Alito house back around Biden getting sworn into office, had decided to fly a flag upside down, a lot of people called out against it, but the most humorous thing is that he blamed his wife and said one of the neighbors had called her a c**t. I remember putting an upside flag as an avatar the second time George Bush Jr was elected, and it was meant as a distress signal regarding our country. No idea what Ms Alito meant by it, but what kind of man openly blames his wife? (Some people believe that flying the flag upside down was part of the Stop the Steal)
This is very rude, so you’re forewarned but I laughed when I read it Rude Pundit. Ten Other Things Samuel Alito’s Wife Will Do If One of Her Neighbors Insults Her
Apparently, if you call Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s wife, Martha-Ann, a “c-word” that rhymes with “runt,” she’ll fly the American flag upside-down at the Alitos’ house in sympathy with election deniers. And Alito won’t deny that that’s what it was for; he’ll just sigh and say, in essence, “Well, the little woman was made to feel bad so she did a treason.” So I guess that she just reacts in the weirdest ways when someone says something mean or puts up a sign that upsets her. She has it all worked out:
1. If you call her a “bitch,” she’ll fly a Nazi flag at her house.
2. If you put up a Black Lives Matter sign, she’ll come to the neighborhood cookout in a Klan robe.
3. If you say her husband is responsible for killing women, she’ll fly the flag of Gilead.
4. If you put up a yard sign for Joe Biden, she’ll piss the word “Trump” on your lawn.
Read the article for more
Update: Well, this just gets worse. Turns out that pretty recently Alito put out an opinion that talks about flags, so now it’s clear he’s not only petty and dumb, but also a hypocrite. PDF
Alito’s Jan. 6 Flag Defense Is Just Weird Gender Politics
Alito Refuses To Recuse In Trump Case As Reporters Catch Him In Yet Another Lie
Alito says the Supreme Court’s fake ethics code allows him to be unethical
Jamie Raskin Explains What America Could Do to Fix the Court
Raskin explained masterfully why judges and justices must remain neutral:
“At his Senate confirmation hearing, Chief Justice Roberts assured America that “Judges are like umpires.”
But professional baseball would never allow an umpire to continue to officiate the World Series after learning that the pennant of one of the two teams competing was flying in the front yard of the umpire’s home. Nor would an umpire be allowed to call balls and strikes in a World Series game after the umpire’s wife tried to get the official score of a prior game in the series overthrown and canceled out to benefit the losing team. If judges are like umpires, then they should be treated like umpires, not team owners, team fans or players.”
Chief Justice Roberts wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee this afternoon, a two paragraph, highly unsatisfactory letter than makes it entirely clear he will not bring any pressure to bear on Justice Alito. Roberts wrote to Senators Durbin and Whitehouse that, “the Members of the Supreme Court recently reaffirmed the practice we have followed for 235 years pursuant to which individual Justices decide recusal issues.” He declined their invitation to make a trip across the street to visit with the Senators, noting that only rarely have Chief Justices met with legislators because of “separation of powers concerns.” If only Durbin and Whitehouse had offered up a luxury fishing trip and a private plane flight.
