Sam Alito — the arch conservative Supreme Court justice — now has two flag controversies to explain, and another striking reason to doubt his impartiality in cases involving Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 defendants. Alito has already been in the news for an upside-down American flag that flew at his primary residence during the period surrounding Jan.
6, 2021. Alito has blamed the placement of that flag — which is typically only to be flown to signify national distress, including when the government has fallen — on his wife Martha-Ann. He characterized her action as the result of a heated dispute with neighbors over a coarse anti-Trump political yard sign.
But now the New York Times is reporting that an even more provocative flag was seen flying at the Alito’s vacation home on the New Jersey Shore last year. The Alito home on Long Beach Island was photographed flying the “ Appeal to Heaven ” flag, also known as the Pine Tree Flag, during the summer months of 2023. That flag was originally flown during the American Revolution.
It carries a quote from the Enlightenment philosopher John Locke, who argued that when a just people are faced with injustice in the political realm, and have exhausted all avenues for redress, that they can move to violence — and God will judge the righteousness of their action. “Where there lies no appeal on Earth,” the philosopher wrote, “they have just cause to make their appeal to heaven.” This flag was laregly a relic of histo.
