Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's neighbor — who reportedly displayed a sign that made the Alitos respond by flying of an insurrectionist flag outside the judge's Alexandria, Virginia home — is now accusing the conservative jurist's private security of intimidating behavior.
The Guardian reported Friday that former Alexandria resident Emily Baden said a "large black car" driven by someone on Alito's private security team started parking in front of her mother's house, where she and her husband lived after the dispute began, even though it was several house's down from Alito's. The car first started appearing during former President Donald Trump's lame-duck period after he lost the 2020 election, before President Joe Biden was inaugurated.
"“This happened a handful of times,” Baden told the outlet. “I took that as directly threatening.”
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“I couldn’t say who was in the car because of the tinted glass, and nobody ever said anything. I took it as a general threat,” she added. “The message was, we could do terrible things to you, and nobody would be able to do anything about it. When it comes to justices at the supreme court, they make the laws, but the laws don’t apply to them.”
Baden said the car notably started appearing in front of her mother's house around the same time that Baden and Martha-Ann Alito — the George W. Bush-appointed judge's wife — exchanged terse words about lawn signs on the Baden's front yard. One sign read "BYE DON" on one side and "F— TRUMP" on the other. After the deadly January 6, 2021 insurrection, Baden displayed another handmade sign that read "TRUMP IS A FASCIST" on one side and "YOU ARE COMPLICIT" on the other. Baden said the latter message was directed at Trump supporters in general and not the Alitos personally, whose house was not visible from the Baden's front yard.
After the New York Times reported recently on the inverted American flag being flown outside of the Alito residence in the days before Biden's inauguration, Baden's husband (who asked to not be identified in the story) confirmed that the black SUV once again parked in front of Baden's mother's home. He told the Guardian that the car showed up in front of their house in 2021 the same night that Emily Baden and Martha-Ann Alito had a shouting match that culminated in Biden shouting an expletive at the Supreme Court justice's wife.
"Right after, a security vehicle moved in front of our house and stayed for the remainder of the night," he said.
Justice Alito has blamed his wife for the kerfuffle over the flag, saying that he personally asked her to take down the flag outside of their home but that she refused. Alito — who voted with other conservative justices to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022 — said his wife "makes her own decisions, and I honor her right to do so."
Despite Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin (D-illinois) calling on Alito to recuse himself from cases the Court is currently reviewing pertaining to Trump and the 2020 election, the justice has so far refused. Chief Justice John Roberts has also declined a meeting with Durbin and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) over the flag controversy.
Click here to read the Guardian's full report in its entirety.
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