The New York Times published a wild report without evidence of their claims about conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
In January 2021, following the Capitol Hill protests, an upside-down American flag was displayed outside of Alito’s home. The NYT claims that this is a symbol associated with former President Donald Trump’s election fraud assertions.
The outlet claimed that the conservative justice hung the upside-down flag, or according to the Times, the “Stop the Steal” symbol outside his house.
The NYT also claimed that it “trigger[s] some sort of review to determine if there was any misconduct” if he were to serve on a lower court.
"After the 2020 presidential election, as some Trump supporters falsely claimed that President Joe Biden had stolen the office, many of them displayed a startling symbol outside their homes, on their cars, and in online posts: an upside-down American flag,” NYT reporter Jodi Kantor wrote. “One of the homes flying an inverted flag during that time was the residence of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, in Alexandria, Virginia.”
However, 16 paragraphs later, Kantor admits that an upside-down flag is not the main symbol of the Janitors 6 protests, rather than just a sign usually associated with “emergency and distress, first used as a military SOS.”
In fact, Black Lives Matter rioters have frequently displayed an upside-down American flag during one of their protests.
An inverted American flag has also been used during the inauguration of George W. Bush, the protest of the nation’s immigration laws, the Iraq war, and the AIDs epidemic.
In an email to the NYT, Alito confirmed that he had no involvement in the flying of the flag outside his home. He said that his wife had hung the inverted flag “In response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”
Kantor interviewed Alito’s neighbors who said that “the justice’s wife, Martha-Ann Alito, had been in a dispute with another family on the block” who “displayed an anti-Trump sign with an expletive.”