The revelation that an upside-down flag flew at the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is raising questions about whether justices whose spouses express doubt in the integrity of elections should recuse themselves from cases related to the Jan. 6 insurrection and Donald Trump’s part in it. Alito is now the second conservative justice on the nation’s highest court to be tied to MAGA election denial—the wife of Clarence Thomas, Ginni Thomas, exchanged several texts with Trump’s chief of staff, urging him to overturn the election. In both cases, the justices pointed to their spouses’ individual points of view, and neither have taken steps to recuse themselves from cases concerning Trump or Jan. 6 despite calls to step down. Recusal is ultimately up to the judges alone, although that hasn’t stopped prominent critics from calling for an enforceable code of ethics or term limits. “None of them have clean hands,” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Judiciary committee, said on MSNBC on Saturday in reference to the Alito reveal.
