[Previous: The cartoonish corruption of the Supreme Court]
We already knew about the brazen corruption of the Supreme Court’s right-wing justices. Clarence Thomas, but also Samuel Alito, have a habit of accepting lavish gifts from billionaire friends with cases before the court. They don’t recuse themselves, but rule the way their plutocrat buddies want them to.
Now we’ve found out something much worse. In addition to his enthusiasm for bribes, Alito is also a fan of the January 6 insurrectionists:
After the 2020 presidential election, as some Trump supporters falsely claimed that President Biden had stolen the office, many of them displayed a startling symbol outside their homes, on their cars and in online posts: an upside-down American flag.
One of the homes flying an inverted flag during that time was the residence of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., in Alexandria, Va., according to photographs and interviews with neighbors.
The upside-down flag was aloft on Jan. 17, 2021, the images showed. President Donald J. Trump’s supporters, including some brandishing the same symbol, had rioted at the Capitol a little over a week before. Mr. Biden’s inauguration was three days away.
…During Mr. Trump’s quest to win, and then subvert, the 2020 election, the gesture took off as never before, becoming “really established as a symbol of the ‘Stop the Steal’ campaign,” according to Alex Newhouse, a researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder.
…Hanging an inverted flag outside a home was “an explicit signifier that you are part of this community that believes America has been taken and needs to be taken back,” Mr. Newhouse said.
Alito claims, implausibly, that the upside-down flag was his wife’s choice to display, not his, and wasn’t intended to convey a political message about the election, but was in response to an altercation she was having with one of her neighbors. This is bullshit and everyone knows it.
Not least, because we then found out that Alito’s house was flying another anti-democracy flag – the Christian nationalist “Appeal to Heaven” flag – as recently as 2023:
The newspaper published photos from neighbors and from Google Street View that show an “Appeal to Heaven” flag flying outside the justice’s beach house in Long Beach Island, New Jersey.
The flag, featuring a green pine tree on a white background, dates to the Revolutionary War, but is now linked with Christian nationalists and those who support former President Donald Trump.
The “Appeal to Heaven” flag was commissioned by Americans during the Revolutionary War, but it fell out of fashion for hundreds of years. But in the last ten years, it was readopted by the Christian right, at the urging of a radical pastor named Dutch Sheets. For them, it symbolizes their belief that God is on their side and will grant them victory regardless of human choices. It was carried by Trump supporters during the January 6 riot and Capitol invasion:
“When the election was called for Joe Biden and Trump refused to concede, almost all the prophets began saying God would have to intervene. Dutch Sheets converted his Give Him 15 prayer app into a YouTube show that became a clearinghouse for all the conversations about overturning the election, and Sheets was constantly infusing this Appeal to Heaven idea.
…It’s not a coincidence that you see Appeal to Heaven flags all over the place on Jan. 6. We know that at least one rioter wore an Appeal to Heaven flag inside the Capitol as a cape. When the FBI went to arrest him later, they found the Appeal to Heaven flag spattered with blood and mace. We can see in one video as the crowds breach the barricades, somebody with an Appeal to Heaven flag using that flagpole to beat down a police officer.” (source)
There’s no innocent explanation for Alito flying not one, but two flags linked to insurrection, election denial and Christian nationalism. Even the New York Times, where vacuous view-from-nowhere journalism is an ingrained habit, couldn’t resist a pointed take about the political implications:
This spring, the justices are already laboring under suspicion by many Americans that whatever decisions they make about the Jan. 6 cases will be partisan. Justice Clarence Thomas has declined to recuse himself despite the direct involvement of his wife, Virginia Thomas, in efforts to overturn the election.
There’s no mincing words: Alito is an election denier. What’s worse, he doesn’t care who knows it. Announcing his views by, literally, flying the flag for them indicates an unconcern with public perception. That suggests a feeling of impunity on his part. He thinks he’s above accountability or consequences.
We need to show him otherwise. Democrats in Congress have introduced a resolution to censure Alito. The FFRF is calling on atheists and skeptics to contact their congresspeople to support it.
This might seem like a waste of time, because censure is symbolic. By itself, it doesn’t accomplish anything. The religious right only cares about power – they’ll do whatever they can get away with, if no one stops them – and censure, even if it’s successful, doesn’t detract from his power.
However, it’s a good start. It’s an official recognition of his wrongdoing, and that lays the groundwork for more. If it passes, it builds momentum for further action: like ethics hearings, impeachment, mandatory recusal, expanding the court, stripping it of jurisdiction, or other measures that are within Congress’ power.
Even if none of those things happen now or after the next election, it can only be good to keep the hot light of scrutiny on Alito and his ilk. The court is a political institution, even if the justices try to pretend otherwise. It has no means of enforcing its decisions. What power it has comes from a general belief in its impartiality and legitimacy. If the justices feel the walls closing in on them, they may feel compelled to issue more liberal rulings than they otherwise would have, as a way of trying to prove they’re not biased.
If the justices feel the walls closing in on them, they may feel compelled to issue more liberal rulings …
Or to go whole-hog full-Trumpista in a last-ditch (but not impossible) bet-the-farm gamble. At least five show such inclinations.
I think that the justices might not be wanting to issue too many decisions in favor of MAGA. Although, they will on this one.
If they decide for Trump too much, letting things go his way, he might get elected, and will eventually be a dictator. And then, SCOTUS justices will be nothing but puppets, issuing whatever decision has been decided for them, and booted off or arrested on trumped-up (ha ha) charges if they dissent.
Thomas and Alito won’t mind that, of course. For both, their judicial philosophy, the basis on which they come to judicial opinions, is “What’s in it for me?” And, of course there’ll be plenty in it for them as Trump’s puppets.
If Roberts were smart, or had a spine (ha!), he’d fix this now. He’d have private meetings with Alito and Thomas, and tell them to ratchet it back, right now, recuse themselves sometimes and quit whoring their robes from the bench (or at least, only turning tricks where the money can’t be traced.)
And if not, tell them that he’ll write to Congress, and publish the letter, detailing *all* their crimes (and he probably knows a lot of secret ones) and asking congress to impeach them. Congress wouldn’t, but it’d be a whole thing, they’d have vituperous press coverage to a degree never before seen, protestors at their houses forever, etc. (And, Alito epecially seems to have a pretty thin skin.) Roberts should lay it out that they’ll be tarred forever.
Then, after they’re acquitted, Roberts will ask for impeachment again, publically, every time they do another crime. Roberts doesn’t actually have to do this, of course: he just has to tell Thomas and Alito that he’ll do it.
That might work. OTOH, these MAGA always seem to be too stupid to see which side of their bread is buttered, and Roberts might have to pull himself together and do it. But, of course, he’s also a spineless idiot, so this will never happen.
Roberts is majorly concerned about his court’s reputation, that it is seen and remembered as “fair and balanced.” But, his court could hardly have a worse reputation that it does now, so he might as well try something.
Respectfully disagree. If you accept bribes, you break the law. If you fly the treason flag you’re saying that you don’t think that the government is legit. BUT, in theory, there are lots of potential reactions to an illegitimate government, some worse than others.
SCOTUS is the last bulwark protecting the rule of law. It’s bad either way — flouting the law while committing felonies OR sending a signal that authority is illegitimate — but is it “much worse” to fly the flag?
No.
It’s arguably worse. It’s also arguably not as bad. This is an opinion question, of course, but when it’s easy to argue the literal opposite of your opinion and you don’t have a good counter, I would be careful about saying that the flag debacle is “much worse”.
Honestly the only way I can find to argue the flag flying is worse (to whatever degree), is that in both cases you are trashing authority and signalling allegiance to something extraconstitutional, but in one case you’re signalling allegiance to loser Trump and in another case you’re signalling allegiance to plutocracy.
Which is “worse” then depends entirely on whether you think Trump is worse than Harlan Crowe. And this is the best case for the flag-is-worse hypothesis (at least best case that I can think of right now). Since bribery is a felony and flying flags is constitutionally protected speech, other dimensions of analysis tilt in decidedly other directions.
In any case, I support the general thrust of your piece. I simply think that dismissing felony bribery as much better than flying a flag is wrong-headed and doesn’t serve to reinforce your point.
I would much prefer a both/and approach that doesn’t bother to compare them. Alito is engaging in felony bribery AND declaring his allegiance to an unstable mans with fascist aspirations. There’s no need to come up with a final answer about which is worse. Every little bit adds to the cumulative case.
That’s a fair point. Alito is both a Christian nationalist election denier and a corrupt servant of plutocrats, and reasonable people can disagree about which of those two is worse.
Personally, I believe the former is worse than the latter. The reason is because I agree with C.S. Lewis’ formulation of the problem:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
It (the “even worse” tactic) does function as an intensifier, though.
A rhetorical technique.
I note:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
So, technically, not worse, but instead not evitable. Inevitable, that is. Ineluctable.
Those kind of locutions always amuse me, since every time someone claims may be, one could substitute may not be without changing the meaning one whit.
Morales is here to opine that, “It may be best if Jews were wiped of the face of the Earth”, and, “It may not be best if Jews were wiped of the face of the Earth”, are exactly equivalent statements the former carrying no different meaning to the latter in any way whatsoever.
We can but bask in his insightful wisdom.
Silentbob, did you notice how you did not dispute my claim?
Again: Those kind of locutions always amuse me, since every time someone claims may be, one could substitute may not be without changing the meaning one whit.
That’s the English language for you, Silentbob.
Heh. You can but try to disparage me, but very, very noticeably, you did not dispute me.
What I wrote stands, and you clearly choose not to dispute it.
Instead, putting words into my mouth. Weird words from a weird person.
FWIW: “exactly equivalent” is not a thing I would write; that’s your little bit of gilt on the lily.
I’d like to see Alito, Thomas, the drunken rapist & the other Trump traitors inflicted on SCOTUS face a lot worse than censure. Arrest and jail as well as impeachment indisgrace and having allthis invalid SCIOTUS sorry excuse for a “courts” decisions ruled null and void seems totally approprate to me.
See also :
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/05/30/corruption-with-a-smirk/
FYI and mentioned this thread there too FWIW.
What Stephen Colbert says here is comical but also pretty spot on too :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyihXzaflgw