Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is pressing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself from all cases related to the 2020 presidential election and Jan. 6, 2021, following a New York Times report showing an American flag hanging upside down at Alito’s Virginia home weeks after the Jan. 6 protests, reports The Hill.
“Flying an upside-down American flag — a symbol of the so-called ‘Stop the Steal’ movement — clearly creates the appearance of bias,” Durbin, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Friday.
“Justice Alito should recuse himself immediately from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection, including the question of the former President’s immunity in U.S. v. Donald Trump, which the Supreme Court is currently considering,” he added.
“The Court is in an ethical crisis of its own making, and Justice Alito and the rest of the Court should be doing everything in their power to regain public trust,” Durbin continued, saying it is another reason for Congress to pass legislation to create a code of conduct for justices.
“Supreme Court justices should be held to the highest ethical standards, not the lowest,” he said.
Alito told the Times he had “no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag.”
“It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs,” he added.
Turning the flag upside down has been used as a political protest symbol.
The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling in the coming weeks on several 2020/21 cases, including whether a former president is entitled to sweeping immunity from criminal prosecution for allegedly official acts taken while in the White House and if federal prosecutors can apply an obstruction law to the Jan. 6 protests.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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