WASHINGTON — Democrats are asking who’s the treasonous one now that pictures have surfaced of an upside American flag flying at the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) — the Somali-born congresswoman who some Republicans have called “treasonous” and accused of being “a foreign agent” — is in disbelief that the GOP is defending Alito after his wife allegedly disrespected the American flag.
The upside-down flag that flew at the Alitos’ home in Virginia in the days after the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was a well-known symbol of Donald Trump’s “stop the steal” effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. A separate “Appeal to Heaven” flag — a banner carried by some January 6 rioters — flew at the Alitos’ vacation home in New Jersey less than two weeks after the riot, the Associated Press reported.
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“It sounds insane. It sounds un-American,” Omar told Raw Story while walking through the basement of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
While there’s disagreement within the Democratic Party over whether to hold hearings into this latest Supreme Court scandal, there’s broad agreement in the party that this latest incident is a new low for the nation’s high court.
On the GOP side, Alito has his defenders, but many Republicans — a party that’s tried to ban flag burning in recent decades — don’t want to wade into this controversy.
At the very least, there’s broad agreement the Supreme Court has astounded a Congress that itself is known for astounding even the most seasoned political observers.
Omar doesn’t use “un-American” lightly. That allegation has personally stung her
— she was born in Somalia before migrating to refugee camps and eventually landing in Minneapolis — as she’s endured sustained attacks questioning her patriotism from many on the right.
In February 2023, Republicans booted Omar — one of just three Muslims in Congress — from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Then, at the start of this year, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced a censure resolution against Omar.
“I wish I had the votes to expel and deport her,” MTG tweeted on X in February.
While the GOP did censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) — another Muslim member — Greene’s effort to shame Omar never got a floor vote. But earlier this month, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) introduced a new censure resolution against Omar.
Omar is wondering where these Republicans are now that Alito, a fellow conservative, is accused of disrespecting the flag in which they drape themselves.
The U.S. Flag Code — a largely symbolic and unenforced law — states that the “flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.” Trump himself has advocated criminalizing flag burning.
“It shows that the flag is just a prop for them and not something that they honor,” Omar said. “You can’t make this s— up. These people really are a special breed.”
“Does this show, like, that MAGA is now the GOP and the court is now MAGA-ish?” Raw Story asked.
“Yeah. That’s been clear,” Omar said. “In the last six, seven years it’s been evident.”
Evident or not, Democrats’ hands are tied — at least in the House of Representatives, where the party is locked in the minority.
This is an election year, and the Supreme Court was already on the ballot after conservative justices overturned Roe v. Wade. But Democrats are now vowing to triple down on their calls to try and restrain the Supreme Court.
“This is one of the reasons why we really need a code of ethics for Supreme Court justices,” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) told Raw Story. “And he does need to, I believe, recuse himself from a litany of cases.”
Frost is generally supportive of a legislative response some of his Democratic colleagues are crafting to this Alito flag incident, but he goes a step further than others.
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“It’s bizarre. Some may say, treasonous. I would say that,” Frost said.
“Treasonous” is a step too far for many of his colleagues — in part because many Democrats are still in disbelief over this flag incident.
“It's pretty pathetic, actually,” Rep Dan Kildee (D-MI) told Raw Story. “In an era where it's hard to find things that are not outrageous, they figured out a way to outdo it. It’s pretty bad.”
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) speaks on a panel at the office of The Center for American Progress (CAP) Action Fund on January 10, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
While Alito blames his wife, Kildee says that’s a flimsy defense.
“He can try to hide behind his wife all he wants, but it's pretty weak,” Kildee said. “The idea that he can express that view and then be a fair judge in cases that involve that particular question, that’s pretty hard to imagine.”
Earlier this session, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed a measure that would saddle Supreme Court justices with a concrete code of ethics. Republicans opposed it, and it squeaked out of the committee on a strictly party line vote., 11-10.
Some Senate Democrats are now calling for hearings into this latest Alito scandal, but so far the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), has nixed the idea. He is, however, calling on the justice to voluntarily bow out of cases about presidential powers and allegations of misconduct surrounding the 2020 election.
“He should recuse in cases — in Article II cases,” Durbin told Raw Story while heading to the Senate floor to vote Wednesday.
In the House, 45 Democrats agree. They penned a letter Tuesday calling on Alito to recuse himself from all Jan. 6-related cases. While the Democratic Party is itching to put up some restraints on the Roberts Court, the GOP wields the gavels in the House.
On cue, Republicans disagree about whether Alito is in the wrong — especially over calls for one of their conservative compatriots to recuse himself from some of the biggest, most controversial cases ever to come before the court.
“That's just asinine,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) told Raw Story of Democrat’s calls for Alito to recuse himself from Jan. 6 cases going forward.
“It’s crap,” Biggs said. “It’s stupid. It is really dumb.”
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ). (Facebook)
Other Republicans won’t go that far. In fact, many don’t even want to touch this controversy with a 10-foot flag pole.
“Not sure what’s the motivator of it, but I guess it’s something between the two of them,” Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) told Raw Story of the associate justice and his wife. “It’s probably inviting scrutiny. Beyond that, I don’t really weigh in on stuff like that when I don’t know much about it. I just know that it happened.”
“‘Inviting’ or ‘welcoming’ scrutiny?” Raw Story asked.
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“However you want to phrase it,” Braun — who, after recently winning Indiana’s Republican gubernatorial primary, is likely the next governor of his state — said through a chuckle.
The issue of an upside down flag isn’t something many veteran Republicans want to weigh in on.
“What are your thoughts when you see an American flag flying upside down?” Raw Story asked Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), who famously and heroically lost his right eye on his third tour to Afghanistan as a Navy SEAL.
“What was the context here?” Crenshaw asked Raw Story.
“Justice Alito, his wife did it. But I was just asking more broadly. Like, is that offensive to you aside from that?”
“I really don’t have a comment. I don’t know,” Crenshaw said. “I got no comment. I have no idea why.”
Democrats are filling that void, including with laughter.
“Well, my first thought is, everybody has neighbor troubles from time to time,” Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA) joked to Raw Story.
“They're just like us!” Raw Story quipped back.
“Yeah,” Neal said as his laughter waned and his face became serious. “But secondly, it seems to me to be petulant.”
Petulant or not, some Democrats are urging their colleagues to stay focused, in part, because the freedom of speech extends to justices and their spouses.
In fact, some Democrats say this episode is doing their job for them.
“It doesn’t surprise me about any of those folks. It’s a shame,” Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) told Raw Story. “It doesn't bother me at all what they’re doing, because it only shows how they really are. Better than words. That makes them part of the MAGA group.”
Pascrell says he’s more concerned about Justice Clarence Thomas taking lavish gifts from billionaire donors, including exclusive, all expense paid vacations on private yachts to accepting free tuition payments for his nephew’s schooling, as ProPublica reported last spring.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (Photo by Olivier Douliery for AFP)
“The other guy that’s taken his off the top, that guy should recuse himself,” Pascrell said. “He's just taking tremendous amounts of donations from the MAGA types. I don’t think you can say that about Alito.”
“And that's more worrying — the taking of the money, because there are strings attached?” Raw Story inquired.
“Absolutely,” Pascrell replied. “Yes. Exactly.”
“But they say there's no strings?”
“There's never any strings,” Pascrell told Raw Story through a laugh. “That's what they said in New Jersey.”
