On January 6, 2021, two top Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked to meet with Chief Justice John Roberts to address the “Supreme Court’s ethics crisis” after reports of controversial flags being flown at the Capitol by some supporters of former President Donald Trump. It was also displayed in the homes of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
In letter Released Friday, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill. and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island asked to meet with Roberts “as soon as possible” and renewed their “call for the Supreme Court to adopt an enforceable code of conduct for its justices.”
The senators wrote that Alito had raised “reasonable doubts about his impartiality” and had repeatedly urged him to recuse himself from cases related to Trump and the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots.
The Supreme Court is currently set to hear two cases on January 6: Trump’s claim of presidential immunity in the election meddling case and an appeal for a man on trial for his actions in the US Congress.
Their request follows Alito’s New York Times report flew upside down–The American flag was lowered January 2021 at his home in Virginia. At the time, weeks after rioters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, the flag was a symbol believed to be used by President Joe Biden in the Stop Stealing movement. He did not win the 2020 presidential election.
After the first report, Durbin This was reported by NBC News has said he does not plan to investigate the matter, but has repeatedly called on Alito to recuse himself from the Trump cases.
A subsequent report by the Times newspaper found that the moment “Appeal to Heaven” flagOn January 6, a plane flown by some protesters flew indefinitely over Alito’s vacation home in New Jersey.
The news of Alito’s flags comes amid a series of stories that have raised questions about the court’s ethical standards and called for the justice to recuse himself from certain cases. Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Virginia “Ginny” Thomas, a conservative activist who supports Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
In their letter, Durbin and Whitehouse point to Thomas, writing that the justice “has been repeatedly involved in cases surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.”
“His wife’s involvement in this case likely created grounds for recusal under federal recusal law,” the senators wrote. “But it appears that the Court did not ask what the facts were about what and when Justice Thomas knew about his wife’s interactions with the alleged participants.”
The senators also reiterated their call for the court to take “meaningful action” to address the “ongoing ethics crisis” by adopting an enforceable code of ethics. Trial in November 2023 issued a 14-page code of conduct did not mention how to process ethics complaints.