Dem
51
GOP
49
OK, he was marginally more polite, but in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL), who has called for Associate Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself from cases relating to the Jan. 6 riots, Alito told the senator he is not going to recuse himself on account of a couple of flags. He wrote: "I had nothing whatsoever to do with the flying of that flag. I was not even aware of the upside-down flag until it was called to my attention. As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days, she refused." This is formally known as the "blame-the-wife defense." Alito also noted that since the house is jointly owned, she has the "legal right to use the property as she sees fit." Of course, since he is a co-owner, he also had the legal right to tell her to take the flag down. If they couldn't agree, they could have gone to court over it, but then the case might have gotten to the Supreme Court, in which case he would get a vote and she would not. Maybe binding arbitration would be better.
Alito also addressed the "Appeal to Heaven" flag that flew at the couple's house in Long Beach Island, NJ. Alito said he didn't know the flag was used by Christian nationalists. Then he went into a more detailed "blame-the-wife" defense, saying: "My wife is fond of flying flags. I am not. My wife was solely responsible for having flagpoles put up at our residence and our vacation home and has flown a wide variety of flags over the years." That's that. At least we now know who wears the pants in the Alito family.
In reality, of course, Alito knows that until such time as the Democrats have the trifecta and abolish the filibuster, he is completely safe as Congress won't do anything to rein him in. And even if Congress created a code of ethics for the Supreme Court, how could Congress enforce it if a justice FLAGrantly violated it? If they controlled the House, the Democrats could impeach Alito, but getting a two-thirds majority in the Senate would never happen. (V)