Second provocative flag flown at US justice's home

A flag carried by US Capitol rioters was displayed last year at a Supreme Court justice's vacation home, The New York Times reported Wednesday, after revelations a similarly provocative flag was flown outside his residence.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito last week faced calls by Democrats to recuse himself from cases involving Donald Trump after the Times confirmed an inverted American flag -- a symbol of the ex-president's false election fraud claims -- was raised at his Virginia home in 2021.

Then on Wednesday the daily reported an "Appeal to Heaven" flag was flown outside the Alito vacation home in New Jersey last summer.

That flag, like the upside-down Stars and Stripes, was carried to the Capitol on January 6, 2021 by Trump supporters seeking to block certification of the November 2020 election won by President Joe Biden.

The Times published photographs of the "Appeal to Heaven" flag flying over a property on Long Beach Island, and cited half a dozen neighbors and passersby confirming that the banner flew at the property in July and September of 2023.

The flag -- which bears the words "An Appeal to Heaven" above a green pine tree on a white background -- dates back to the Revolutionary War.

Although it fell into obscurity, it recently became a symbol of support for Trump and a push for a more Christian-centric US government.

Last week 74-year-old Alito, who was nominated by Republican president George W. Bush and confirmed in 2006, pushed back on the criticism, saying the upside-down flag was briefly flown by his wife "in response to a neighbor's use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs."

The justice has yet to respond publicly to the revelation of the second flag.

The report is certain to draw further ire from Democratic lawmakers who have claimed the initial flag provocation created an appearance of bias and was in conflict with his obligations as a justice of the Supreme Court, which serves as a pinnacle of judicial authority.

Dick Durbin, an influential Democrat who leads the Senate's Judiciary Committee, repeated a call for Alito to recuse himself from cases involving the 2020 election.

"This incident is yet another example of apparent ethical misconduct by a sitting justice, and it adds to the Court's ongoing ethical crisis."

Another conservative justice on the court, Clarence Thomas, 75, has ignored calls to recuse himself on grounds that his wife took part in the drive to keep Trump in power even after he lost the election.

The high court is currently weighing two cases which address January 6, including a Trump claim of presidential immunity in his election interference case. Rulings are due in late June or early July.