Why the Alito Flag Story Matters

It's basically the Supreme Court justice equivalent of an actor breaking the fourth wall, except with massive consequences for democracy and human rights.

The biggest story in politics this week was the revelation that Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito flew two flags outside homes he owned in the wake of Jan. 6: an inverted American flag outside his D.C. house, which insurrectionists also carried at the Capitol riot, and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag at his New Jersey beach house, which is a far-right Christian nationalist symbol. Considering that Supreme Court justices aren’t even allowed to clap or make facial expressions at the State of the Union address each year lest they betray any political bias, the notion of Alito brazenly outing himself as a MAGA guy who supported Donald Trump’s attempted coup is pretty stunning.

Of course, Alito’s politics have been pretty apparent for some time, so the scandal here is not him revealing himself to be a right-wing nutcase, which we already knew. It’s more that in flouting all respect for the purpose of the third branch of government—which is to be impartial in interpreting the rule of law and to consider each case in good faith on its merits—Alito has dropped any pretense of plausible deniability and essentially declared, My power is unchecked, I’m above the law and immune to rules and ethics, I can do whatever the fuck I want during this lifetime appointment, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

And he’s mostly right. The court has been rocked by explosive ethics scandals for the past year-plus, including Clarence Thomas being secretly bankrolled by a billionaire Republican mega-donor who collects Hitler memorabilia and has a garden full of dictator statues. Thomas’ wife, herself, is an insurrectionist who tried to help overturn the 2020 election, and he doesn’t bother to recuse himself from cases related to Jan. 6 despite the glaring conflict of interest. Congress didn’t even try to impeach Thomas for that, and they’re now saying they simply have no idea what they can do about Alito.

Meanwhile, just today, Alito authored a terrifying decision that allows South Carolina to adopt a heavily gerrymandered redistricting map that benefits the GOP at the expense of Black voters.These guys are eroding democracy from the bench, stripping our rights away and helping Republicans drag this country back to the 50s, while essentially mocking our outrage. And if you’re holding out hope that Democrats will eventually reach a breaking point and become angry enough to expand the court and/or starting impeach justices, you will almost certainly be disappointed.

In other news…

• Trump made the stunning claim today that Vladimir Putin will only release Evan Gershkovich, the WSJ reporter being held hostage in Russia for doing journalism, if and when Trump wins the election. So basically, Trump and Putin are both holding Evan hostage for political leverage.

• Louisiana House Republicans passed a bill that classifies the abortion pill as a dangerous controlled substance and criminalizes the possession of them, despite the fact that abortion pills are proven to be safer than penicillin and Viagra.

• A new NYT profile of Nicole Shanahan, the self-described “Silicon Valley Princess” whom RFK Jr. chose for a running mate without vetting her much at all, is hilarious and unhinged and worth a read. In addition to having a ketamine-fueled sex affair with Elon Musk, Shanahan once paid $200K for a lifestyle photographer to follow her around and do a story about her “fighting the good fight.”

• The asshole boss I wrote about in my first post here continues to be an asshole and has now sold St. Louis’ most beloved newspaper, the Riverfront Times, to an unknown buyer and laid off its entire staff

• If anyone needs tips on how to deal with plantar fasciitis, Twitter gave me (literally) 3,400 of them, because the internet apparently remains invested in my feet

What I’m watching this week

Dark Matter on Apple+ is a highly binge-able new sci-fi series that explores the question of the “road not taken,” or what your life might look like if you’d made a single different decision however long ago. You have to suspend a lot of disbelief to accept the plot, but I am really engrossed in the show so far (just finished Episode 4), and it certainly helps that Jennifer Connelly stars in it.

A final note

Thanks for bearing with me as I experiment with content and format here in this nascent newsletter of mine to figure out what works and what people want to read from me. I hope you’re enjoying reading it as much as I’m enjoying writing it, and I always welcome suggestions and feedback to make it better! —L