Chief Justice Roberts has been under almost as much fire as Justice Alito over the flag controversy.
Democrat leadership had requested a meeting with Roberts to discuss the recusal of Alito from all J6 cases, but Roberts has declined.
Talking Points…
-Alito flag controversies
- Roberts denies request
- Analysis
The entire narrative being pitched by Democrats right now regarding Alito is utterly ridiculous. Dems were outraged when pictures of an upside-down American flag outside Alito's home surfaced. This is a military distress signal, but Alito explained his wife flipped the flag after she had a rather nasty argument with a neighbor. It was not, as people suggested, support for what took place on January 6.
Then another report surfaced that the “An Appeal to Heaven” flag was flying at his vacation home, which the media had dubbed a January 6 symbol since some of the people at the “Stop the Steal” rally had been flying the flag. As I have noted before, this flag was commissioned by General George Washington as well as being the Massachusetts nautical flag, so there really is no controversy here.
Regardless, the Dems were calling for Alito to recuse himself, which he has refused to do. Additionally, Democrat leadership demanded a meeting with Chief Justice Roberts to discuss Alito’s recusal from the court.
Roberts has left this decision up to other justices in the past, and he did the same here. When the meetings were requested, Roberts shut them down immediately.
The initial effort was being led by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sheldon White House (D-R.I.), both of whom were on the push for an ethics guideline for Supreme Court justices. They requested a meeting earlier this month to discuss “additional steps to address the Supreme Court’s ethics crisis.”
Roberts responded to their request:
“In regard to questions concerning any Justice’s participation in pending cases, the Members of the Supreme Court recently reaffirmed the practice we have followed for 235 years pursuant to which individual Justices decide recusal issues.
“It is my understanding that Justice Alito has sent you a letter addressing this issue.”
Alito did send a letter on the subject, telling the lawmakers:
“A reasonable person who is not motivated by political or ideological considerations or a desire to affect the outcome of Supreme Court cases would conclude that this event does not meet the applicable standard for recusal.”
You guys know me well enough by now that if I thought there was something to this, I would call out both Alito and Roberts, but this is a huge, nothing burger. This is all about Democrats trying to undermine the court and have conservative justices removed so they can try to replace them with liberals and nothing more. I applaud both justices for standing up to these ludicrous narratives and requests by Democrats.
