Jodi Kantor breaks down what you need to know.
Over the last few weeks, the New York Times has reported extensively on the provocative flags seen outside Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s home in Northern Virginia and his New Jersey beach house. The symbols in question seem to suggest the justice sympathizes with the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 — which has deeply troubling implications given that the Supreme Court is weighing in on a federal law that was used to charge Jan. 6 rioters and whether Donald Trump has executive immunity from prosecution for trying to overturn the election.
“Judicial ethics rules are very firm about not making political displays,” the New York Times’s Jodi Kantor, who’s been reporting on the flag controversy for the last few weeks, told Katie Couric during a recent Instagram live.
While some people, especially Democratic lawmakers, have argued that Justice Alito should recuse himself from the Jan. 6 cases, the judge has refused to step away. This could have ramifications on the decisions of the cases and whether the public accepts them: Americans’ approval of the Supreme Court has hit a historic low in recent years. “You see that you see the trust and institutions falling both on the left and the right,” Kantor said.
“I think the fear and the question now is, when the court makes these decisions about these January 6 cases, how will people react to them? And will there be less confidence about them, in part because of these flags?”
The two flags in question, by the way, are an upside-down American flag, which was displayed outside Alito’s Virginia home, and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which was hung up outside his vacation home. The justice has confirmed the upside-down flag hung outside his residence, but said that his wife put it up as part of an ongoing feud with their neighbors.
This, of course, raises a number of questions: What was going on with the Alitos and their neighbors? What’s the significance of flying the American flag upside-down, and what even is an “Appeal to Heaven” flag? And what impact is this all going to have on the Supreme Court? Katie and Jodi answer all these questions and more in their illuminating in-depth conversation. Check it out below.
