If you ever wondered what an all-hands-on-deck, full-scale, seemingly coordinated attack on an American institution looked like, look no further than the Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito flag “controversy” and all the players involved in promoting the story and fearmongering about it.
It’s got media involvement, with the Washington Post adding itself to the list with an admission that they knew about the Alito upside-down flag incident for over three years but sat on the story:
It’s also got involvement from left-wing special interest groups and involvement from so-called “independent” investigative organizations who just so happen to be funded in part by wealthy leftist donors. And, of course, it’s got involvement from powerful Democrats in Congress.
Two of them are, surprise surprise, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Sen. Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), both of whom sent a letter Friday to Chief Justice John Roberts demanding a meeting with him in hopes of getting him to force the “recusal” issue with Alito:
“By displaying the upside-down and ‘Appeal to Heaven’ flags outside his homes, Justice Alito actively engaged in political activity, failed to avoid the appearance of impropriety, and failed to act in a manner that promotes public confidence in the impartiality of the judiciary. He also created reasonable doubt about his impartiality and his ability to fairly discharge his duties in cases related to the 2020 presidential election and January 6th attack on the Capitol. His recusal in these matters is both necessary and required,” wrote Whitehouse and Durbin.[…]“For centuries, Supreme Court justices conducted themselves in such a way that the absence of proper procedures consistent with these principles was a moot failing. That is no longer true. The Court’s Code of Conduct has failed to redress or prevent any of these ethics violations, largely because it contains no enforcement mechanism. Both the Court and the Judicial Conference appear to have failed to even investigate allegations of ethics violations by Supreme Court justices, much less provide any findings or sanctions,” added the senators.
Durbin is the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Whitehouse sits on. Whitehouse is the Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) went so far during a recent interview as to refer to the Supreme Court in its current form as an “extremely corrupted and contaminated body”:
But to my mind, we’ve gotta organize the people in America. That’s where the power comes from. And we will, if and when we win back the House and the Senate and the White House. We will look at the Supreme Court and figure out what can be done about that extremely corrupted and contaminated body.
It’s a message Whitehouse wholeheartedly agreed with:
Whitehouse, who has made it his life’s mission to delegitimize the Supreme Court by any means necessary, put up yet another one of his infamously long-winded Twitter threads in response to the stories, accusing Alito of “flying MAGA battle flags at his houses” and both Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas of being beneficiaries of a “billionaire-funded gifts program”:
Whitehouse also accused them of conflict of interest issues, which, as Legal Insurrection readers are well aware, is a lot like the pot calling the kettle black:
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a legal legend in his own mind, declared that Alito allegedly making “political statements” was a violation of “the most basic ethics requirement of any judge”:
There are, of course, some flies in the ointment regarding these Democrat arguments, with the first one being that one does not need to be an “insurrectionist” to fly the American flag upside down, nor to raise the “Appeal to Heaven” flag.
The latter has also been flown in official capacities in San Francisco:
… and has been used during other far-left rallies:
Further, there’s the little matter of Democrat hypocrisy when it comes to alleged “conflicts of interest” on the Supreme Court:
There’s much more from where that came, but I think the point has been made.
Additionally, it’s mildly amusing to hear Democrats fretting about supposed impropriety when one considers one of the cases they want Alito to recuse himself from involves Joe Biden’s general election opponent, Donald Trump.
Last but not least, Raskin’s Twitter feed from last week gave us a big clue as to what all the fuss over Alito and flags was really all about:
In other words, their attacks on Alito and Thomas are about distracting voters, Democrat and independent ones especially, from Joe Biden’s disastrous record and equally bad polling numbers:
Nailed it.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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