Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has confirmed that an upside-down American flag flew at his home in Virginia.
The inverted flag was flying on a flagpole outside the Alexandria home on Jan. 17, 2021, according to an image published this week.
Requests for comment sent to the Supreme Court were not returned.
Martha-Ann Bomgardner Alito, the justice’s wife, could not be reached.
Justice Alito told Fox News that a neighbor had placed a “[expletive] Trump” sign close to where the Alitos’ children wait for their school bus, prompting the justice to confront the neighbor. The situation escalated to the point that the neighbor put up another sign that blamed Mrs. Alito for the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol. A man at the home also used an expletive when addressing Mrs. Alito in person.
Mrs. Alito was distraught and then hung the flag upside down “for a short time,” Justice Alito said.
U.S. law states that the American flag “should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.” The law does not contain any penalties for displaying a flag upside down.
Virginia law states that homeowners associations must allow homeowners to fly American flags as long as the flags are flown in compliance with the U.S. law “or any rule or custom pertaining to the proper display of the flag.” Associations can place restrictions pertaining to factors such as the size of the flags and how they can be displayed.
At the time the flag was flown upside down at the Alitos’ home, some supporters of then-President Donald Trump had taken to flying upside-down flags, including during the Capitol breach. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a staunch supporter of the former president, is among the Republicans who have shared upside-down flags on social media in recent years.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement to news outlets that flying the upside-down flag “clearly creates the appearance of bias.”
During the oral arguments, Justice Alito at one point wondered, “If an incumbent who loses a very close, hotly contested election knows that a real possibility, after leaving office, is not that the president is not that the president is going to be able to go off into peaceful retirement, but that the president may be criminally prosecuted by a bitter political opponent, will that not lead us into a cycle that destabilizes the functioning of our country as a democracy?”
“And we can look around the world and find countries where we have seen this process, where the loser gets thrown in jail,” he added.
Michael Dreeben, a Department of Justice lawyer, responded by arguing that President Trump properly took election claims to the courts but should not be protected against the criminal charges he’s facing for other actions.
Justice Alito, 74, was appointed to the Supreme Court by former President George W. Bush in 2005 and is now one of the longest-serving justices. He is one of six justices who were appointed by Republican presidents. The other three were appointed by President Biden or former President Barack Obama.
