CNN's Fareed Zakaria buried U.S. Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito for displaying a MAGA symbol outside his home in the days between the Jan. 6 insurrection and president Joe Biden's inauguration.
The conservative justice claims his wife flew an upside-down American flag, which some of the U.S. Capitol riots carried during the violent insurrection, in response to a neighbor's sign she found personally insulting, and Zakaria dismissed his explanation as absurd and insufficient.
"It's an odd defense," Zakaria said. "'My wife made me do it, my wife did it' – it feels a little bit like 'my dog ate my homework.' But more seriously, the damage is to the court's credibility. The court has always positioned itself as an independent institution, and chief justice [John] Roberts often tries to make the case that the judges are conservative or liberal with regard to jurisprudence, not the political spectrum. They don't take sides politically left and right, they think about the law and they might have various philosophies of law. Well, all that is upended by this brazenly partisan act. You can agree with it or disagree with it, but for a Supreme Court justice to be weighing in so publicly is, I think, deeply damaging to the court's credibility."
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"Of course, Alito has been has behaved like this in the past," Zakaria added. "He's made flippant speeches and remarks that were nakedly partisan if you read – you don't even have to look at upside-down flags to see his political philosophy. His opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was almost medieval in its understanding of women's roles and women's rights."
Watch the video below or at this link.
05 17 2024 10 15 01 youtu.be
