U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito told lawmakers today he won't recuse himself from cases involving the 2020 presidential election or the January 6th Capitol Riot that's despite concerns about two flags associated with far right causes that have flown over his properties. Responding to demands from

Democrats that he disqualify himself, Alito said in two letters that his wife, Martha and Alito, was responsible

for flying the flags.

My wife is an independently minded private citizen, the justice wrote.

She makes her own decisions and I honor her right to do so.

Kathleen Clark is with us.

She's a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis,

and she specializes in government ethics.

Thanks for being with us, especially as you're traveling.

Thank you.

So the New York Times reported that there was this upside down American flag

displayed at Alito's Virginia home in the days before President Biden's inauguration.

And in the letter that he issued today, the justice said he had nothing whatsoever to do with

the flag.

He was not aware of it. When he became aware of it, he asked his wife to take it down, but she refused for several days.

And he says, my wife and I own our Virginia home jointly. She therefore has the legal right to use the property as she

sees fit. Is that an adequate explanation from an ethics perspective?

No, it is not. Justice Alito is accurate in saying that his wife has a legal right to display a flag in front of a house that she

co-owns with him.

No one's questioning her legal rights.

The issue is whether he needs to recuse

once it has become clear that his, flag associated with the January 6th

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