An upside down flag was spotted outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in the days leading up to President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021, according to photos obtained by The New York Times Thursday. The symbol—meant to evoke an America in distress—was favored at the time by advocates of Trump’s “Stop the Steal” efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election. Alito, for his part, denied any involvement in the placement of the flag, and instead blamed his wife. “I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag,” he told 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.” Experts in judicial ethics, however, decried the use of such blatant political messaging outside the home of a supposedly nonpartisan justice. This is “the equivalent of putting a ‘Stop the Steal’ sign in your yard, which is a problem if you’re deciding election-related cases,” Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia, told the newspaper.
