Adam Serwer writes:

There may be an insurrectionist justice on the Supreme Court, perhaps two. The New York Times reported yesterday that 10 days after a violent mob ransacked the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election and keep Donald Trump in power, an upside-down American flag flew outside the home of Justice Samuel Alito. At the time, Trump supporters were using the upside-down flag as a symbol of their belief in Trump’s lies that the election had been stolen.

Trump knew those claims were false, and many conservative-media stars also knew those claims were false. Nevertheless, right-wing outlets like Fox News repeated those false claims, stirring hope among their audiences that the election outcome could be reversed by force or fraud. The conservatives who trusted those outlets clung to those beliefs, either earnestly or as an ideological expression of their more foundational belief that the constituencies of the rival party are illegitimate and their votes should not count.

Among those audiences appears to be the Alito household, which, according to the Times’ report, flew the upside-down flag for an unknown number of days, despite or because of the fact that “Trump’s supporters, including some brandishing the same symbol, had rioted at the Capitol a little over a week before.” Alito, for his part, as right-wing champions of family values are wont to do, blamed his wife.

“I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag,” the right-wing justice told the paper. “It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.” A Fox host later reported that “the neighbor put up a sign personally addressing Mrs. Alito and blaming her for the Jan 6th attacks.” Even accepting that this is true and that Alito’s neighbor was behaving rudely, signaling support for an insurrection is an odd way to respond to someone accusing you of supporting an insurrection. [Continue reading…]