After Donald Trump was discovered responsible of 34 felony counts in a Manhattan court docket, conservatives — from Marjorie Taylor Greene to George Santos to the Heritage Basis — started posting upside-down American flags on X in solidarity with the “political prisoner,” as Trump absurdly types himself.
It was the identical upside-down image that insurrectionists carried to the Capitol on Jan. 6 to proclaim that they thought the election was stolen and that was seen flying over Justice Samuel Alito’s home in suburban Virginia even because the Supreme Courtroom was contemplating whether or not to listen to a case in regards to the 2020 presidential election.
Now that it’s getting used to indicate help for a felonious ex-president, Alito could have an excellent tougher time attempting to fake he’s oblivious about its which means.
I don’t want a black gown handy down a judgment on the Supreme Courtroom.
It’s corrupt, rotten and hurting America.
The as soon as august court docket, which the general public held in highest esteem, is now hopelessly corroded: It’s within the palms of a cabal of spiritual and far-right zealots, together with a few moral scofflaws with MAGA wives.
Chief Justice John Roberts, who dreamed of being remembered as an ideal unifier of the court docket, is refusing to rein in Justices Alito and Clarence Thomas, who’re thumbing their noses on the public and their very own oaths to dispense truthful and neutral justice.
When Alito pushed a keen conservative majority into yanking away ladies’s proper to regulate their very own our bodies, he was, in essence, blaming ladies: You get pregnant, you’ll must dwell with it.
On this newest firestorm, he blamed one lady specifically: his spouse, Martha-Ann.
One way or the other, in Alito’s world, ladies are guilty.
It was surprising when The Occasions’s Jodi Kantor reported that the upside-down flag cherished by “Cease the Steal” marchers was hanging exterior Alito’s home. It was much more surprising after we realized that one other flag carried by “Cease the Steal” rioters on Jan. 6, the “Attraction to Heaven” flag, was flying exterior the Alitos’ trip residence in New Jersey as instances regarding the Jan. 6 assault and riot have been pending on the court docket. This flag symbolizes help for Donald Trump and a need to infuse the federal authorities with much more Christianity.
“In coming weeks, the justices will rule on two climactic instances involving the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, together with whether or not Mr. Trump has immunity for his actions,” Ms. Kantor wrote. “Their selections will form how accountable he will be held for attempting to overturn the final presidential election and his possibilities for re-election within the upcoming one.”
Alito’s conservative Christian, right-wing, deeply aggrieved views in regards to the tradition wars are mirrored in his speeches, selections and now flags which might be purple flags.
He’s refusing to recuse himself from the 2 instances in regards to the tried coup on Jan. 6. (One issues the query of whether or not Mr. Trump is immune from prosecution for his function egging on rioters; the opposite includes a federal obstruction legislation used to cost the rioters.)
When main Democratic lawmakers demanded Alito’s recusal, he wrote again, attempting to make Martha-Ann Alito the autumn man. Alito has clearly heard sufficient legal appeals to know you’ve bought to level the finger at anyone else whenever you’re responsible.
“My spouse is keen on flying flags,” he wrote to the lawmakers. “I’m not. She was solely liable for having flagpoles put up at our residence and our trip residence and has flown all kinds of flags over time.”
He’s comfortable to remove the rights of hundreds of thousands of American ladies to regulate their our bodies, however respects the fitting of his spouse to regulate their incendiary flags. Whereas he’s on the Supreme Courtroom, he mentioned, Martha-Ann wields the gavel at residence.
“I used to be not even conscious of the upside-down flag till it was known as to my consideration,” he wrote. “As quickly as I noticed it, I requested my spouse to take it down, however for a number of days, she refused.” He mentioned there was completely nothing he might do to get that pesky seditious flag taken down sooner.
He was oblivious in regards to the symbolism of the “Attraction to Heaven” Pine Tree Flag, he claimed.
Clarence Thomas can also be awash in moral snarls, some associated to his spouse. Ginni Thomas’s supporters additionally tried to defend her activism associated to Jan. 6 by saying she is an impartial partner.
Nevertheless it doesn’t wash. As Jane Mayer wrote in The New Yorker, Ms. Thomas is a lawyer and a outstanding member of hard-right teams and “has declared that America is in existential hazard due to the ‘deep state’ and the ‘fascist left,’ which incorporates ‘transsexual fascists.’”
In a Fb put up, she linked to a information merchandise in regards to the Jan. 6 protest and wrote “LOVE MAGA individuals!!!!”
Mayer famous that it’s getting tougher to dismiss Ginni Thomas’s actions as innocent, provided that the “Supreme Courtroom seems prone to safe victories for her allies in plenty of extremely polarizing instances — on abortion, affirmative motion, and gun rights.”
Senator Richard Blumenthal requested Roberts to make Justice Thomas recuse himself from the case on Trump and the rebel, however Thomas refused.
The Supreme Courtroom has two selections on abortion instances due any day.
“The Fall of Roe,” an insightful new e-book by the New York Occasions reporters Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer, laid out the occasions and the technique — and the failure of the Democrats to acknowledge the menace — that led to the autumn of Roe. There was a decided group of spiritual zealots with a long-term grasp plan to pack the court docket with spiritual zealots.
“These conservative Catholic and evangelical Christian operators believed they have been preventing the largest ethical battle of the trendy age, and compelled America to debate on their phrases,” they wrote. “However regardless of their public appeals, they didn’t persuade broad swaths of People of the righteousness of their trigger. As a substitute, they remained a minority, and leveraged the buildings of American democracy of their favor, constructing a framework robust sufficient to face up to not solely the political system but additionally a society transferring quickly towards them. They took energy to remake the nation of their picture. They usually have been much more organized than their opponents or the general public ever knew.”
Now it’s as much as Democrats to show the tables and see if they’ll use this difficulty within the November election to save lots of the nation and girls’s rights.
