A second banner flown by the Jan. 6 rioters was seen outside Justice Alito’s home, according to the report

WASHINGTON  – The New York Times revealed on Wednesday that a second flag, similar to the one hoisted by rioters during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, was flown outside Justice Samuel Alito’s residence.

Last summer, Alito’s beachfront vacation house had an “Appeal to Heaven” banner flying outside. Less than two weeks after the violent attack on the Capitol, Alito’s residence outside of Washington was observed to have an inverted American flag, another symbol carried by rioters.

Last week, reports of the upside-down American flag caused a stir. Leading Democrats even called on Judge Alito to step away from cases involving former President Donald Trump.

Requests for information about the origins of the “Appeal to Heaven” banner and its intended meaning were met with silence from Alito and the court. He had earlier claimed that he had nothing to do with his wife flying the American flag upside down during a fight with neighbors.

Three images obtained by the Times show the white flag with a green pine tree flying at the Alito beach house in New Jersey. Although the duration of the flight and Alito’s duration were unclear, the photos were taken between July and September of 2023 on several days.

Although the flag has been around since the Revolutionary War, it has recently come to be connected to Christian nationalism and Trump advocacy. It was carried by protestors energized by Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign and spurred on by unfounded allegations of electoral fraud.

Republicans serving in Congress as well as state representatives have flown the flag. Shortly after taking the gavel in the fall of last year, House Speaker Mike Johnson hung it in his office. According to a spokeswoman, the speaker values the flag’s lengthy history and received it from a clergyman who visited the House as a guest chaplain.

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In the meantime, Alito is involved in two ongoing issues before the Supreme Court related to January 6: the first concerns whether Trump is immune from punishment for his attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election, and the second concerns whether rioters can be charged with obstruction of justice. Additionally, he took part in the court’s majority decision that states cannot utilize the “insurrection clause”—a provision added to the Constitution following the Civil War—to prevent Trump from running for office.

The second flag’s discovery sparked fresh demands for Alito to recuse himself from them-related matters. It is challenging to present any convincing argument for Alito’s objectivity at this time. It needs to and can be questioned.

Noah Bookbinder, head of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, stated that “he must not sit on cases about the 2020 election or the insurrection he appears to have supported.” In an effort to get Trump off the ballot, the group defended Colorado voters in the high court case involving the “insurrection clause.”

Alito has not indicated that he would withdraw from the cases.

Because his wife, Virginia Thomas, supports efforts to overturn Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden, another conservative justice, Clarence Thomas, has likewise disregarded requests for him to recuse himself from matters about the 2020 election.

Meanwhile, public confidence in the Supreme Court has fallen to its lowest level in at least half a century.

Codes of judicial ethics place a strong emphasis on judges’ independence and forbid them from expressing political views or opinions on issues that they could be asked to decide. The Supreme Court didn’t have a code of ethics for a long time, but in November 2023 it did so after receiving constant criticism for several justices’ unreported travels and presents from affluent donors. But there is no way to enforce the code.