Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/20/supreme-court-justice-samuel-alito-flew-inverted-u-s-flag-outside-home-a-maga-symbol-of-disgust-for-america.html
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Allegedly, his wife also expressed concern about school children seeing the neighbor’s “Fuck Trump” sign while waiting for the bus. Except the schools there were still remote due to COVID at the time.
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And this lovely gentleman apparently sold his Anheuser-Busch stock in part of a right-wing boycott and anticipated stock drop therein. Not that there’s any hope of getting such an insider on illegal insider trading. (“corruptus in extremis”)
Samuel Alito Sold Anheuser-Busch Stock During Right-Wing Boycott: Report
SUSPICIOUS TIMING
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito sold off a chunk of stock in Anheuser-Busch Inbev in August 2023, just as a vicious right-wing boycott campaign of the company was reaching full swing, according to financial disclosure reports first spotted by the Substack page Law Dork. The boycott was ostensibly in reaction to a limited social media partnership between trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light, one of AB-Inbev’s best-selling brands. The boycott campaign turned out to be a rare success for anti-LGBTQ activists, likely leading to more than $1 billion in lost sales and at one point wiping up to $27 billion off the company’s market cap. Alito did not respond to Law Dork’s request for comment, though the disclosure raises questions about his political activities just as the High Court faces numerous ethical scandals.
There can likely be no success in the senate or house to impeach justices or expand the court while the republicans hold 60% breaking populations there; but sometimes in politics there is popular advantage in an overt attempt alone. so how about it Durbin??
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It’s not illegal when they do it.
/s
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Hurry up and expand the effing court already.
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We need at least 60 Democrats in the Senate to do that. Or enough Democrats willing to get rid of the filibuster, which is unlikely. We also need a majority in the House.
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That’s a long walk for a lame insult. Do better.
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How is this insider trading? A boycott is public knowledge.
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This is another of those excuses that doesn’t make any sense.
“My wife was upset because people used hurtful language to her, so by way of a response she displayed a symbol that represents a call to overthrow the newly-elected administration.”
If her neighbors had put up a sign that said “Fuck Trump” and she had posted one that said “Let’s Go Brandon” (or whatever), that would seem childish but proportionate. But the upside-down flag signaling “Stop the Steal” is of a different order.
Alito and his wife are both mature adults. They know the significance of displaying a symbol that questions the integrity of US elections and calls for insurrection outside the home of a Supreme Court justice. They also know very well that the election was not stolen and there was never any reason to think it was. And even if it was Bomgardner who hung the flag upside down, it was Alito who allowed it to remain.
So “Oh, my wife’s feelings were hurt by those rude, rude Democrats, it’s not my fault,” is a pathetic and unconvincing excuse. And if a Supreme Court justice and his wife publicly show their support for an attempt to overturn a democratic election by violence and fraud – which is what their little flag gesture actually signifies – then that’s just a bad, bad look. Alito has publicly demonstrated his contempt for the ideals of the system that he is supposed to represent, and now he’s pulling the sleazy little trick of trying to pretend that wasn’t what he meant and really it’s someone else’s fault anyway.
Cowardly. Corrupt. Contemptible.
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Was it, though? Do you imagine the only point of the post was to make a joke about Alito’s breath? It’s a little lame, as far as jokes go, but that wasn’t a long walk. It wasn’t even a short step. It was just right there in his name.
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I’ve always known it was too much to hope for that the Supreme Court would consistently apply a fair and impartial reading of the law, but when justices cease to believe in the very concept of rule of law altogether I’m not sure how we come back.
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Avoiding even the appearance of impropriety is obviously too high a bar for some in this court.
Edit: Not that that’s anything new I suppose; just additional confirmation. Really hate knowing that any rulings made by Alito is pretty much guaranteed to be based on his personal politics rather than the merits of the arguments made for or against.
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Also bad and wrong.
The neighbor isn’t a judge (that I know), certainly not a Supreme Court Justice. The neighbor has no obligation to be impartial about anything.
Different jobs come with different restrictions. Including restrictions to spouses. Being a Supreme Court Justice includes remaining impartial. If he, or his wife, cannot hold up that standard, there’s nothing forcing him to continue being a Supreme Court Justice, just retire and move on. Post retirement, he (or his wife) can fly that flag however they want. Put up whatever signs they want.
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Alito blamed his wife: he said she put it up after getting in a fight with a neighbor who had an anti-Trump lawn sign. It’s not clear exactly how this story is supposed to exonerate him: it doesn’t explain why the Alitos used this pro-coup gesture, of all the possible options, as a way to retaliate against their progressive neighbors. And the story is still one in which the Alitos are affirmatively voicing their partisan loyalty in public, and showing themselves unable to tolerate even the proximate presence of Americans who do not share their own morbid, conspiratorial and punitive worldview.
But asking why Alito feels he can get away with it misses the point: he knows he can get away with it. The justice is perfectly aware that he does not need to pretend to neutrality, or hide his partisan loyalties, or behave, with anything like a convincing effort, like his work on the court is motivated by the law and not his own reactionary political preferences. Alito knows that he does not need to maintain any pretext of integrity, intellectual commitment or seriousness in his work. The supreme court has accumulated enough power to itself – and the justices have done a sufficiently good job of insulating themselves from any accountability or consequence – that he doesn’t even think he needs to lie any more. He’s comfortable being a partisan operative right out in the open.
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The US supreme court is neither honorable nor functional anymore
Strange way to put that, since it’s been very “functional” lately in helping out with far-right shittiness.
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… unfortunately there’s nothing forcing him to stop either 
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not functional in the sense of what its purpose originally was? I mean, you are putting “functional” in quotes here, so its all in the context, right?
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