Former Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Weissmann attacked the rationale of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Wednesday, after Alito published a letter revealing he will not recuse from the Trump presidential immunity case or any case related to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Alito’s recusal was requested by U.S. Senators and numerous judicial ethics experts after the revelation that flags associated with the ‘stop the steal’ movement were raised in front of his homes in Virginia and New Jersey. Alito said his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, was responsible for the flags, not him. The SCOTUS justice claimed he had no ability to remove the flags against his wife’s wishes.
Weissmann wrote: “My take: what does Alito mean he had no ability to take down a flag his wife put up, because they jointly own their house? Is that the legal reasoning of a man who overruled Roe as unconstitutional- yes!”
DT Wyman replied to Weissman: “Wouldn’t it just be a hoot if Samuel Alito had recently published an opinion in which he expressed his belief about flags & whether people viewing them would naturally assume the flag conveyed a message on the owner’s behalf…” Having suggested the hoot, Wyman then provided a link to the 2022 Supreme Court decision Shurtleft et al. v. City of Boston et al, Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit No 20-1800, which was argued on January 18, 2022 and decided on May 2, 2022. (See below.)
Wouldn’t it just be a hoot if Samuel Alito had recently published an opinion in which he expressed his belief about flags & whether people viewing them would naturally assume the flag conveyed a message on the owner’s behalf…https://t.co/h6dVkZcrBZ pic.twitter.com/S3bC0MlAoS
— DTwyman (@dtwyman) May 30, 2024
Wyman highlights a section of the decision which cites Alito: “As the Court rightly notes, “[a] passerby on Cambridge Street” confronted with a flag flanked by government flags standing just outside the entrance of Boston’s seat of government would likely conclude that all of those flags “conve[y] some message on the government’s behalf.”
Wendy Weiser of the Brennan Center replied: “Good catch.” Former FBI Special Agent turned Yale lawyer and MSNBC legal analyst Asha Rangappa replied with a series of wide-eyed emojis.