Another flag carried by January 6 rioters was seen flying outside the New Jersey beach home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on multiple occasions last year, according to a report.
The “Appeal to Heaven” flag, was carried by rioters during the pro-Trump attack on the US Capitol in 2021, was flown outside the vacation home of Justice Alito during the summer of 2023. Also known as the “Pine Tree flag”, it dates back to the Revolutionary War.
It comes days after reports from The New York Times, that a flagpole on the judge’s front lawn at a property in Virginia had flown an upside-down American flag in late 2020 and early 2021, in the days after Joe Biden took office.
The “Appeal To Heaven” flag and the inverted US flag were both embraced by supporters of Donald Trump’s “Stop The Steal” campaign, which falsely claimed Mr Biden’s was fraudulent.
Three photos obtained by the newspaper, along with accounts from a half-dozen neighbors and passers-by given to the outlet, confirmed that the “Appeal to Heaven” flag was flying at the Alitos’ home on Long Beach Island in July and September of 2023.
A Google Street View image from August 2023 also shows the flag flying.
The newspaper noted that the photographs it had obtained were each taken independently and were from four different dates, though it was not clear whether the flag was displayed continuously during those months or how long it was flown overall.
The Independent has contacted the Supreme Court for comment about the flag outside the Alitos’ New Jersey property. Mr Alito declined to comment to the Associated Press.
News of the upside-down American flag at the Alitos’ Virginia home in 2020/ 2021 sparked an uproar last week.
Mr Alito previously said the inverted American flag was flown “for a short time” by his wife amid a dispute with neighbors, and he had no part in it.
The flag was visible up to 17 January 2021, The New York Times reported, 11 days after the violent insurrection in Washington DC, and three days before Mr Biden’s inauguration.
The traditional military distress symbol was repurposed as a political symbol to indicate rejection of the legitimacy of Mr Biden’s election victory.
The flag furore comes ahead of two pending Supreme Court cases associated with January 6. Justices will decide whether Mr Trump has immunity from prosecution for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and whether a certain obstruction charge can be used against rioters.
Justice Alito also participated in the court’s unanimous ruling that states can’t bar the former president from the ballot using the “insurrection clause”, added to the Constitution after the Civil War.
Despite Justice Alito’s denial about his involvement with the flag in Virginia, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, previously called for him to recuse himself from the cases related to the January 6 attack.
News of the second flag has brought renewed calls for Mr Alito to step aside from the Trump-related cases.
“At this point it is difficult to make any reasonable case for Alito’s impartiality. It can and must be questioned. As a result, he must not sit on cases about the 2020 election or the insurrection he appears to have supported,” Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told AP.
The group represented Colorado voters in the “insurrection clause” case at the high court seeking to bar Trump from the ballot.
There has been no indication Mr Alito will be stepping aside from the cases.
Rep Adam Schiff also called for Justice Alito to recuse himself.
“The “Appeal to Heaven” flag was carried by rioters at the Capitol on January 6. It was also flown — apparently for months — outside of Justice Samuel Alito’s other home. It’s yet another demonstration of his clear bias. And it demands his recusal from Jan. 6th related cases,” he wrote on X.
