Alito’s Stars and Gripes

Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts

Slate Podcasts

News Commentary, Politics, Government, News

4.6 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2024

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Justice Samuel Alito’s wife didn’t attend the January 6th 2021 “Stop the Steal” rally (unlike fellow SCOTUS spouse Ginni Thomas), but in January 2021, in a leafy Alexandria, Virginia cul-de-sac, the New York Times reports that the Alito household was engaged in a MAGA-infused front yard spat with the neighbors, even as the Justice was deciding cases regarding that very election at the highest court in the land. Justice Alito told the New York Times his wife was responsible for the upside down stars and stripes flying from their flagpole and that it was in retaliation for an an anti-Trump sign. It’s unseemly. Undoubtedly unethical. But this intra-suburban squabble, and the very clear implications it has for a public already aware of the Supreme Court’s dwindling legitimacy, is unlikely to evoke shame, amends, or recusal from Justice Alito. On this week’s Amicus, American legal exceptionalism sliced three ways: Dahlia Lithwick on the Justice and the Flag, Slate’s jurisprudence editor Jeremy Stahl on how Donald J. Trump’s criminal hush money trial ends, and Congressman Jamie Raskin on concrete steps to supreme court reform, how to get back the rights the Supreme Court has taken away, and what a binding ethics code would look like. Want more Amicus? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately unlock exclusive SCOTUS analysis and weekly extended episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:49.3	2024.
0:50.1	It's the only court in the land, federal, state or any other kind of court that does not have a binding ethics code against it, and it shows.
1:01.0	Hi and... shows.
1:16.0	Hi and welcome back to Anicus, Slate Supreme Court Podcast about the court, the law, democracy, and in recent weeks on this show about the very dubious history of the Supreme Court's love affair with originalism. There was some big legal news
1:21.0	out of the High Court this week, but it was again overshadowed by some
1:24.8	jaw dropping reporting on judicial misconduct. On Thursday night, the New York Times
1:30.7	Jody Cantor reported that in January of 2021 days after the attack on the United States Capitol,
1:37.0	a cul-de-sac in Alexandria, Virginia was royal by warring yard signs and flags, but this was not your average neighborhood battle.
1:46.4	Nope.
1:47.4	The house with the upside down stars and stripes on its flagpole, broadly understood
	...

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