US Supreme Court Justice Alito's home flew another provocative flag -NYT

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito attend a private ceremony for retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor before public repose in the Great Hall at the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday, Dec. 18, 2023. Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via REUTERS/ File Photo

By John Kruzel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A provocative flag was photographed flying outside conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's vacation home last year, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, days after news that an upside-down American flag had hung outside his Virginia home in 2021.

A flag bearing the phrase “Appeal to Heaven” that was carried by some Donald Trump supporters during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol flew outside Alito's vacation home on Long Beach Island, New Jersey, in July and September of 2023, the Times reported, citing photographs and interviews.

Alito did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

Alito faced calls from critics last week to step aside from cases related to the 2020 election after the Times reported that an inverted American flag flew outside his Virginia home in the days before Democratic President Joe Biden's inauguration in January 2021.

Alito told the New York Times that the inverted flag had been placed by his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, after a dispute with a neighbor over a sign on the neighbor's lawn that was critical of Republican then-President Trump.

The inverted U.S. flag became a symbol of protest by Trump supporters as he sought to overturn his loss to Biden with false claims of widespread voting fraud.

The Supreme Court is currently weighing Trump's bid for immunity from prosecution on federal criminal charges for trying to reverse his 2020 defeat. The justices are also weighing a challenge by a Pennsylvania man to a federal criminal charge of obstruction that he faces for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.

The Appeal to Heaven organization says on its website that the flag, which shows a white pine tree under the slogan, was flown by order of George Washington in October 1775.

The organization says that it "exists to honor the Lord by networking elected officials who are believers in Jesus Christ, who regularly attend and display a commitment to an evangelical, Gospel-centered church and who will commit to live and govern based on biblical, constitutional and Federalist principles."

(Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Scott Malone and Leslie Adler)