GOP criticizes Alito’s ‘Stop the Steal’ flag—but won’t do anything about it
At least a few Republicans have issued mildly critical responses to Justice Samuel Alito’s upside-down flag, a symbol of support for Donald Trump, while the Supreme Court was debating election issues in 2021. It’s been a long time since any statement from Donald Trump, no matter how outrageous, generated more from congressional Republicans than a kind of selective ignorance, or, of course, an announcement from Sen. Susan Collins that she is “very concerned.” In the case of Alito, even reliable Trump lap dogs feel compelled to take a gentle poke. As HuffPost reports, that includes Sen. Lindsey Graham, who said that flying the inverted flag was “not good judgment.” Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said that Alito’s flag suggested “a partisan take” on an issue before the court. And Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota simply called it “weird.” But will any of them support action to reign in a Supreme Court overrun with corruption? Even in this instance, their criticisms were highly qualified, giving the conservative justice plenty of slack and showing more concern about how this event looks than what it means. “Obviously, the optics are terrible,” Cassidy said. “It suggests a partisan take on a series of events that you want them to be dispassionate on, but he’s got his own side of the story.” “I don’t know what role―he said his wife was insulted and got mad―I assume that [to] be true, but he’s still a Supreme Court justice,” Graham said. There were still plenty of Republicans who had nothing to say about the incident other than to blame the press and Democrats for pointing it out in the first place. Bonus points to Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, who came to the defense of Alito for hiding behind his wife. “He didn’t put the flag up, his spouse did,” Kennedy said. “And I don’t think you can tell spouses that they have to forfeit their right to say what they believe.” This isn’t the first opportunity for Republicans to take a stand against corruption in the court. It’s not even their first opportunity to deal with corruption by Alito. When news of both Alito and Clarence Thomas’ astounding openness to bribery flared a year ago, some Republicans were slightly disturbed. Collins was concerned enough to suggest that the Judiciary Committee investigate. Sen. Lisa Murkowski was even more explicit. “I see no reason not to be able to support this other than are Republicans worried that we don’t want to embarrass the conservative members of the court,” she said. “We need to be worried about the credibility of the court right now. If I were Chief Justice Roberts, I would have been working on this the minute this news broke.” But most Republicans continued to insist that the court could handle itself. And it did. The Supreme Court responded with a new “code of conduct” that, as Joan McCarter reported in 2023, amounted to little more than a statement that they were free to do whatever they wanted. Not only does the new code allow displays of partisan favoritism, but it also contains no mechanism to punish a Supreme Court justice. Alito weighed in at the time with an op-ed that defended his acceptance of huge gifts from someone who had business before the court at least 10 times. His excuse was that he didn’t notice that the hedge fund currently involved in a case before the court was connected to the hedge fund manager who gifted Alito a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. Kind of like how he missed the pro-Trump flag in front of his own house while he was dealing with a case about the 2020 election. Republicans’ willingness to level mild, somewhat cringing criticism at corrupt members of the Supreme Court could come down to the fact that, unlike Trump, Alito and Thomas are less likely to get on social media to whip up pressure against any naysayers. They can weasel-word their way through a statement about Alito without worrying about who shows up at their doors. Or it could simply be that Trump, busy with his own court-related problems, hasn’t given them clear marching orders to defend Alito. It doesn’t matter whether they are willing to call Alito’s actions “weird” or moan about the “optics” of the situation. What matters is whether any of the Republicans will join in calls for a serious investigation of court corruption. It’s going to take more than asking Alito to recuse himself with no mechanism in place to make it happen. After all, neither Alito nor Thomas has recused himself from ruling on Trump’s immunity case. The depth of the Supreme Court’s corruption needs to be exposed, and the consequences need to be real. So far, no Republican appears ready to take that step. Campaign Action
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At least a few Republicans have issued mildly critical responses to Justice Samuel Alito’s upside-down flag, a symbol of support for Donald Trump, while the Supreme Court was debating election issues in 2021.
It’s been a long time since any statement from Donald Trump, no matter how outrageous, generated more from congressional Republicans than a kind of selective ignorance, or, of course, an announcement from Sen. Susan Collins that she is “very concerned.”
In the case of Alito, even reliable Trump lap dogs feel compelled to take a gentle poke. As HuffPost reports, that includes Sen. Lindsey Graham, who said that flying the inverted flag was “not good judgment.” Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said that Alito’s flag suggested “a partisan take” on an issue before the court. And Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota simply called it “weird.”
But will any of them support action to reign in a Supreme Court overrun with corruption?
Even in this instance, their criticisms were highly qualified, giving the conservative justice plenty of slack and showing more concern about how this event looks than what it means.
“Obviously, the optics are terrible,” Cassidy said. “It suggests a partisan take on a series of events that you want them to be dispassionate on, but he’s got his own side of the story.”
“I don’t know what role―he said his wife was insulted and got mad―I assume that [to] be true, but he’s still a Supreme Court justice,” Graham said.
There were still plenty of Republicans who had nothing to say about the incident other than to blame the press and Democrats for pointing it out in the first place. Bonus points to Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, who came to the defense of Alito for hiding behind his wife.
“He didn’t put the flag up, his spouse did,” Kennedy said. “And I don’t think you can tell spouses that they have to forfeit their right to say what they believe.”
This isn’t the first opportunity for Republicans to take a stand against corruption in the court. It’s not even their first opportunity to deal with corruption by Alito. When news of both Alito and Clarence Thomas’ astounding openness to bribery flared a year ago, some Republicans were slightly disturbed. Collins was concerned enough to suggest that the Judiciary Committee investigate.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski was even more explicit.
“I see no reason not to be able to support this other than are Republicans worried that we don’t want to embarrass the conservative members of the court,” she said. “We need to be worried about the credibility of the court right now. If I were Chief Justice Roberts, I would have been working on this the minute this news broke.”
But most Republicans continued to insist that the court could handle itself. And it did.
The Supreme Court responded with a new “code of conduct” that, as Joan McCarter reported in 2023, amounted to little more than a statement that they were free to do whatever they wanted. Not only does the new code allow displays of partisan favoritism, but it also contains no mechanism to punish a Supreme Court justice.
Alito weighed in at the time with an op-ed that defended his acceptance of huge gifts from someone who had business before the court at least 10 times. His excuse was that he didn’t notice that the hedge fund currently involved in a case before the court was connected to the hedge fund manager who gifted Alito a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. Kind of like how he missed the pro-Trump flag in front of his own house while he was dealing with a case about the 2020 election.
Republicans’ willingness to level mild, somewhat cringing criticism at corrupt members of the Supreme Court could come down to the fact that, unlike Trump, Alito and Thomas are less likely to get on social media to whip up pressure against any naysayers. They can weasel-word their way through a statement about Alito without worrying about who shows up at their doors.
Or it could simply be that Trump, busy with his own court-related problems, hasn’t given them clear marching orders to defend Alito.
It doesn’t matter whether they are willing to call Alito’s actions “weird” or moan about the “optics” of the situation. What matters is whether any of the Republicans will join in calls for a serious investigation of court corruption.
It’s going to take more than asking Alito to recuse himself with no mechanism in place to make it happen. After all, neither Alito nor Thomas has recused himself from ruling on Trump’s immunity case.
The depth of the Supreme Court’s corruption needs to be exposed, and the consequences need to be real. So far, no Republican appears ready to take that step. Campaign Action
