U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is embroiled in a second flag controversy in as many weeks, this time over a banner that in recent years has come to symbolize sympathies with the Christian nationalist movement and the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Last summer he flew a flag reading “Appeal to Heaven” in front of Alito's beach vacation home in New Jersey, according to the New York Times, which obtained several images showing it on different dates in July and September 2023. The Times previously reported that an upside-down American flag, a sign of distress, had flown outside Alito's home in Alexandria, Virginia, less than two weeks after the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol. United by supporters of former President Trump.
Some of the rioters carried the inverted American flag or the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which shows a green pine tree on a white field. The revelations have raised concerns about Alito's impartiality and his ability to objectively decide the cases currently before the court related to the January 6 attackers and Trump's attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Alito has not commented. about the flag at his summer house.
Here is the history and symbolism of the “Appeal to Heaven” flag.
What are its origins?
Ted Kaye, secretary of the North American Vexillological Association, which studies flags and their meaning, said the “Appeal to Heaven” banner dates back to the Revolutionary War. Six schooners equipped by George Washington to intercept British ships at sea flew the flag in 1775 while sailing under his command. It was the maritime flag of Massachusetts from 1776 to 1971, he said.
According to Americanflags.com, the flag pine symbolized strength and resistance in the New England colonies, while the words “Appeal to Heaven” arose from the belief that God would deliver the colonists from tyranny.
How has its symbolism changed?
There are a few reasons why people are flying “Appeal to Heaven” flags today, said Jared Holt, a senior analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based think tank that tracks hate, misinformation and extremism online. .
Some identify with a “patriot” movement that is obsessed with the Founding Fathers and the American Revolution, he said. Others adhere to a Christian nationalist worldview that seeks to elevate Christianity in public life.
“It's not very clear which of those reasons would be accurate” in this situation, Holt said. But he called the display outside Alito's home “alarming,” saying those who fly the flag often advocate for “more intolerant and restrictive forms of government aligned with a specific religious philosophy.”
The “Appeal to Heaven” flag was among several banners carried by the Jan. 6 rioters, who also favored the Confederate flag and the yellow Gadsden flag, with its rattlesnake and the message “Don't tread on me,” Bradley Onishi said , author of “Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism.”
“That's family,” he said.
What about Mike Johnson?
House Speaker Mike Johnson displays the flag in the hallway outside his office, next to the flag of his home state of Louisiana.
Johnson, a Republican, told the Associated Press that he didn't know the flag had come to represent the “Stop the Steal” movement.
“I'd never heard that before,” he said.
The speaker, who led one of Trump's legal challenges in the 2020 election, defended the flag and its continued use despite the modern symbolism surrounding it.
“I've always used that flag for as long as I can remember, because I was so enamored of the fact that Washington used it,” Johnson said. “The Appeal to Heaven flag is a critical and important part of American history. It’s something I’ve always revered since I was young.”
He added: “People misuse our symbols all the time. “That doesn’t mean we don’t use symbols anymore.”
Johnson said he had never raised the American flag upside down as a sign of danger, as Alito did, and declined to assess the justice situation and whether raising the flags at his home was appropriate.
But he described criticism of the “Appeal to Heaven” flag as “artificial.”
“It's nonsense,” he said. “It's part of our history. “We don’t remove statues and we don’t cover up things that are so essential to who we are as a country.”
Should Alito recuse himself?
House Democratic leader Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts said in a statement that the display of the “Appeal to Heaven” flag at an Alito home “was not simply another example of extremism overtaking conservatism. “This is a threat to the rule of law and a grave violation of Justice Alito’s ethics, integrity, and oath.”
He asked Alito to recuse himself from any case related to January 6 and the former president.
There is a clear difference between the speaker of the House of Representatives displaying the flag outside his office and a Supreme Court justice waving it and the upside-down American flag outside their homes while the court decides cases involving issues that those flags have come to symbolize, said Alicia Bannon, director. from the Judicial Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. Alito's actions don't “simply cross the line,” she said. “They take you out of the stadium and out of the parking lot.”
Alito and the court declined to respond to requests for comment on how the “Appeal to Heaven” flag came to be flown and what it was intended to express. Alito has said that his wife briefly raised the American flag upside down during a dispute with neighbors and that he had no involvement in it.
Another blow to the court's reputation?
The Supreme Court was already under fire as it considers unprecedented cases against Trump and some of those charged with the Capitol attack.
One problem is that the high court does not have to adhere to the same codes of ethics that guide other federal judges. The Supreme Court had long been without its own code of ethics, but adopted one in November 2023 amid sustained criticism over undisclosed trips and gifts from wealthy benefactors to some justices, including Alito. However, the code lacks means to enforce the law.
The federal code of judicial ethics does not universally prohibit judges from engaging in nonpartisan or religious activities outside their office. But it does say that a judge “shall not engage in extrajudicial activities that diminish the dignity of the judge's office, interfere with the performance of his or her official duties” or “reflect adversely on the judge's impartiality.”
Jeremy Fogel, executive director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute at UC Berkeley School of Law, said the flag revelations raise questions about whether Alito can be impartial in any case involving Jan. 6 or Trump.
“Displaying those particular flags creates at least the appearance that justice is showing signs of agreeing with those views at a time when there are cases before the court where those views are relevant,” he said.
An AP/NORC poll in March found that only about a quarter of Americans think the Supreme Court is doing a fairly good or very good job of upholding democratic values. About 45% think they are doing a somewhat or very bad job.
Fields, Mascaro and Amiri write for the Associated Press. AP writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.
