Another polarizing flag was flown outside Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's home. This time it was his summer property in New Jersey, according to The New York Times.
Alito's Long Beach Island home featured the so-called “Appeal to Heaven” flag (aka Pine Tree flag) aloft in the July and September months of last year, the outlet reported.
Reporters chatted with six neighbors who vouched for the flag's presence and some shared photographs documenting it. Each requested anonymity to avoid potential acrimony with the Alitos.
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Notably, when The Times visited the house on Wednesday, they reported the flagpole was bare.
The "Appeal to Heaven" symbol was brandished by supporters of former President Donald J. Trump who attended the “Stop the Steal” protest on Jan. 6, 2021.
That event exploded into a deadly riot, with thousands storming the Capitol.
The symbol tracks back to the early Revolutionary War era as a battle flag adopting the phrase, “An Appeal to Heaven,” from John Locke’s opposition to a king's divine right to rule and emboldened an armed revolution in the face of tyranny.
They also pointed to a Google street view image that dated back to late August that proved the flag was shown; though it's unclear how continuous it was raised during that time period.
The revelation dovetails off of the jurist's controversial move to fly an upside-down American flag — a known MAGA "Stop the Steal" symbol — at his Virginia home.
That attracted widespread controversy as it was spotted right around the same time that the Supreme Court was deciding whether to take up a challenge to the 2020 election brought by the Republican Party of Pennsylvania.
Alito has been pressured about the timing of his flag waving as the Supreme Court wrangles with cases involving Jan. 6 and whether former President Donald Trump's deserves absolute immunity as he's facing criminal charges in his federal election subversion case on Jan. 6.
“We all have our biases, but the good judge fights against them,” Charles Geyh, a law professor at Indiana University Bloomington told The Times. “When a judge celebrates his predispositions by hoisting them on a flag... that’s deeply disturbing.”
Apparently, other members of Congress have embraced the Pine Tree symbol.
House Speaker Mike Johnson's office doorway has three flags displayed. They are the Stars and Stripes, the Louisiana state flag and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag," according to Aaron Fritschner, who included a photograph purportedly capturing the flag hoisted at Johnson's office. And he claimed that Rep. Chip Roy's office also included the same flag.
