Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington speaks during a news conference outside the U.S. Supreme Court, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. Hank Johnson from Georgia, right, waits to approach the microphone. Lawmakers joined progressive groups in urging Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself from cases related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Jayapal and Johnson have both introduced bills related to the ethics of the Supreme Court. (Ashley Murray | States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — Progressive lawmakers and organizers on Wednesday urged U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself from cases related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and to testify before Congress about two flags sympathetic to insurgents deployed in front of his two houses. .
With the Supreme Court as a backdrop, a group of about 20 people held signs reading “Investigate Alito” and denounced a “five-alarm fire consuming democracy,” as Georgia Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson put it .
Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said: “Chief Justice (John) Roberts and Justice Alito must testify publicly and under oath about the flag-waving incidents and how the court treated them. »
Johnson and Jayapal respectively introduced bills aimed at imposing term limits for Supreme Court justices and mandate a code of ethics applicable to the highest magistrates of the country.
Johnson too joined Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman of New York introduced a bill Tuesday to create an independent investigative agency focused on Supreme Court ethics.
Two flags
An upside-down American flag hung outside Alito’s home in Alexandria, Virginia, just days after supporters of former President Donald Trump breached the Capitol, according to photos obtained by the New York Times.
An upside-down American flag is generally considered a sign of distress or protest across the political spectrum.
The Times also revealed that an “Call to Heaven” flag agitated above the beach at Long Island Beach, New Jersey, where Judge is located during the summer of 2023. The white flag with a pine tree can be seen in Pictures of the Jan. 6 riot, when Trump supporters invaded the Capitol, attacking and injuring police officers with flagpoles, bear spray and other improvised weapons.
In a May 29 letter To lawmakers, Alito said the flags were flown by his wife and that he would refuse calls to recuse himself from Jan. 6-related cases.
“My wife loves flying flags. I am not,” he wrote to Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee. federal.
The two senators, who request in a meeting with Chief Justice Roberts about Alito, championed an ethics bill called the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act, which advance out of committee along party lines in July 2023, but did not…
