Upside-down flag a ‘signal of distress’ 

Martha Ann Alito, wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, has previously said that flying the American flag upside down at their home in January 2021 was a “signal of an international crisis.” according to The Washington Post reported Saturday.

According to a report from The Washington Post, a former reporter from the paper visited the Alitos’ home in northern Virginia after following up on information about the flag, a symbol of the “Stop the Steal” movement. When the reporter arrived at the home on the day of President Biden’s inauguration, the flag was no longer flying, but when the reporter saw the Alitos leaving the house, Martha Ann told the reporter, “Get off my property.”

When a Post reporter asked Martha Ann about the upside-down flag, she reportedly replied, “It’s an international distress signal!”

Sen. Samuel Alito previously said he had “nothing to do with” the flag being flown upside down at his home. The New York Times reported last week that the flag was flown on Jan. 17, 2021.

“I had nothing to do with raising the flag,” the justice told The Times when asked about the flag. “It was only temporarily raised by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor using offensive and personally offensive language on her yard sign.”

Justice Alito faced new controversy over the flag this week after The Times reported that a second flag used by the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was flying outside the justice’s vacation home.

Democrats have railed against Judge Alito over his reporting on the flag, with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) saying he sees a “pattern” in the flag.

“The first time the American flag went into distress mode [Alito] “It was dismissed as accidental inattention by an emotional wife following a conflict with a neighbor. The second incident really shows a pattern,” Durbin said.

“This is not an accidental inadvertence. It was a conscious decision by the Alito family to promote political sentiment. It does not benefit the Supreme Court in the slightest, and Justice Alito should accept his responsibility to recuse himself from litigation involving the Trump Administration,” the Illinois Democrat said.

Former national security adviser John Bolton was among those defending Alito, calling the attacks on him “outrageous, outrageous and unacceptable” in comments Wednesday.

The Hill has reached out to Alito for comment.