Under the Upside Down Flag (Alito Incognito)

It's said that displaying the picture of a Supreme Court Justice upside down is a sign of profound distress due to an emergency threatening the nation.  It may also be used as a symbol of protest.  This picture of Justice Alito was posted by here by someone.  I don't say it was me, but I take advantage of it to comment on the flying of the Stars and Stripes, Old Glory, The Grand Old Flag of our Glorious Republic, The Flag Of Our Fathers, upside down at his house  in January, 2021, contemporaneous with the insurrection effort of January 6 of that year and the silly "Stop the Steal" movement related to the 2020 election.

Justice Alito when confronted with proof that this took place promptly hurled his wife under the bus, and claimed that she had done it without his knowledge or consent.  He was, it seems, unaware of events taking place at his home and of the conduct of his wife, who as far as I know has neither confirmed nor denied his gallant claim.  Alito claims she treated our flag in such a fashion because of signs on display in the yards of certain of his neighbors, which we're to believe were so offensive as to merit this call for distress, or which otherwise required that she brandish her support for the claim the 2020 election was stolen in this fashion.

It's not a persuasive claim or explanation, I think.  The Justice has displayed an ignorance of women in general in the past, but it doesn't follow from this that he was, or is, ignorant of the thoughts and actions of his wife specifically.  Also, just why anyone would think flying the flag upside down is an appropriate response to nasty neighbors is unclear.  I can't help but wonder if this was Alito acting incognito; i.e. with his identity rather thinly concealed by the person of his wife.

If hanging the flag upside down was conduct in support of the "Stop the Steal" farce or was intended to express belief that the election had been stolen, it's remarkable that the spouse of a Supreme Court Justice would act in this fashion given that even at the time, as I recall, the claims made in that respect had been laughed out of courts throughout the nation.  One would think a belief in judicial impartiality and reserve would cause a reasonable person to question the basis for the assertions being made in court which various judges dismissed, and it may be expected that even the wife of a Supreme Court Justice would hold such a belief, if not the Justice himself.  But perhaps this isn't to be expected of either the Justice's wife or the Justice himself in this case.

We see at the Supreme Court as we see elsewhere in our politics and society a sense of disdain for lives different from ours and thoughts which are contrary to our own.  We also see self-righteousness of an extreme kind.  In politics and in an increasingly political judicial system, the expression of this self-righteousness is pharisaical.  

We know the Supreme Court Justices have recently refused to adopt a code of ethics similar to that which applies to other federal judges.  It seems they're serenely confidant that no such code need exist (it's to be hoped they don't think that ethics themselves are unneeded at the Supreme Court, but only in lesser courts).  We know also that another Justice and his wife have blithely accepted costly gifts from very rich friends and admirers, for the most part wealthy conservatives, and see nothing objectionable about this mooching on their part.  This kind of self-regard can be dangerous, as Supreme Court Justices, who have no term of office and whose decisions cannot be appealed, can come to think of themselves as truly supreme.

We can expect that neither Justice Thomas (whose wife supported claims of a fraudulent election) or Justice Alito will recuse themselves from cases involving the January 6th insurrection under the circumstances, of course.  

It's unsurprising that the reputation of the Supreme Court is diminishing.  Lawyers know judges better than most, and probably are no more impressed by the knowledge or characters of the current Justices than they are of most other judges of appellate courts.  They know there's nothing particularly laudable or admirable about them and their significance is simply in the power they wield.  But it strikes me that others are coming to know this as well.  Unfortunately, certain of the Justices seem bent on making certain that respect for the Court continues to dwindle.