The highest Court in the land – a body that essentially has the final word on our fate as citizens – has a few justices who have become insanely ideological. I don’t have to tell you that this is really, really, REALLY bad.

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The most obvious reason for this shift is that Supreme Court Justices are only human, just like the rest of us. This means they are in no way immune from being swayed by powerful political proclivities and, worse, being corrupted. In the past few years, there have been several concerning stories about ethical issues and the Supreme Court Justices – everything from Justice Samuel Alito, Jr. engaging in luxury travel to Alaska with a billionaire hedge fund manager who often has business before the Court to the Mississippi Book Festival buying 1,500 copies of Justice Elena Kagan’s books in exchange for her speaking at the event.

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But these things are child’s play when compared to two horrifying examples involving Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas, one revealing breathtakingly bad judgement and the other exhibiting straight up corruption.

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Let’s start with Justice Alito and his breathtakingly bad judgement. On May 16, 2024, The New York Times reported that an upside-down American flag had flown outside the Alito’s home after the 2020 presidential election. Although the upside-down flag has always been a sign of emergency and distress for the military, in the weeks after the 2020 election and subsequent January 6th insurrection it was embraced by supporters of “Stop the Steal” (i.e., those who believed the false narrative that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Donald Trump). In fact, many Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th carried upside-down American flags for this reason.

 

This is obviously not a great look for a sitting U.S. Supreme Court Justice on any day, but especially not at a time when the Court was actively deciding – and would continue to decide – whether to hear cases surrounding the 2020 election, the Capitol riots, and Donald Trump himself. But it didn’t stop there. Less than a week after the first New York Times report, it was discovered that a second flag – known as the “Appeal to Heaven” flag – was flown outside the Alito’s vacation home during the summer and fall of 2023. The Appeal to Heaven flag, also carried by Trump supporters on January 6th, is yet another flag that has been embraced in support of the “Stop the Steal” movement (as well as Christian Nationalism and other far-right causes).

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Our gut reaction is that these should be impeachable offenses. But, according to the U.S. Constitution, impeachment should be reserved for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors” and Justice Alito’s actions obviously don’t rise to the level. That said, he should have absolutely recused himself from any case involving January 6th and/or Donald Trump’s involvement on that day.

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… and then he should have been chastened enough to shape up. For our judicial system to work, there must be enormous trust between judges and the American public – meaning our judges must be seen as fair and impartial. If they are not, the entire thing falls apart. This goes ten-fold for the justices that sit on the bench of the U.S. Supreme Court. Not only must justices have no conflicts of interest, they must not have the appearance of any.

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Justice Alito repeatedly said that his wife was “solely responsible” for flying the flags – which is not hard for anyone to believe after she was secretly recorded at a party saying “I want a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag because I have to look across the lagoon at the Pride flag for the next month” – but he is delusional if he thinks he can just blame outrageously bad judgement on his wife going forward. In my mind, Justice Alito gets one mulligan. That’s it.

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< Just a gossipy side note: The secret recordings almost make you feel bad that Justice Alito has to put up with this from Martha-Ann. She said at one point that, after her husband asked her to please not fly flags, she agreed but then told him, “When you are free of this nonsense, I’m putting it up and I’m going to send them a message every day, maybe every week. I’ll be changing the flags.” How old is she, 12? Ugh. >

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Now let’s turn our attention to Justice Clarence Thomas, who has also shown outrageously bad judgement (first and second example) but who has also exhibited corruptive behavior that is worthy of impeachment (third example).