Let Your Freak Flags Fly, Sam

I don't give a shit about Alito's flags

I know I’m way in the minority here but I don’t give a shit about Samuel Alito’s flags. No doubt you’re already familiar with the story, but just in case: Alito has been caught flying two flags at two of his homes. The first was an upside-down American flag, typically used as a protest symbol against the government. The second was a “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which I guess is a “Stop the Steal” symbol associated with the January 6^th protestors.  

So, the argument for Alito to recuse and/or resign basically boils down to, “How dare he fly those flags. They demonstrate impartiality!” Which, of course, they do. But the notion that Supreme Court Justices are impartial is laughable on its face. If they ever were, they’re certainly not now.

The reason we go to the circus every time a new Justice is nominated is precisely because nobody believes they’re going to be impartial. These are political appointments made by the leader of the political party in charge of the Executive Branch. To think that any modern President wouldn’t use that particular chip to get one of their own onto the bench is ridiculous. Whether we wish them to be or not, any political appointee is going to serve a political need.

I am old enough to remember the Robert Bork hearings. Bork was a conservative jurist nominated by Reagan to fill the seat vacated by Lewis Powell. The hearings were contentious; although nobody questioned Bork’s qualifications to serve, many Senators were concerned about Bork’s limited constitutional philosophy, finding that the Constitution did not guarantee a right to privacy. Many feared this would open the door to a repeal of Roe V. Wade. Also, he looked like if Colonel Sanders published dirty magazines.

Just try to tell me this guy doesn’t look like he publishes Juggs. Photo by Jose R. Lopez/New York Times

Bork’s narrow defeat in the Senate is widely viewed as the first shot in the modern Supreme Court wars, which we are still living through today and which don’t look like they’ll abate before the country, ultimately, cracks up. Alito wasn’t nominated until 2005, almost twenty years into these wars, replacing Sandra Day O’Connor. O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, was known as a centrist conservative. Alito was a conservative. A centrist? Not so much.

Opposition to Alito was predictable and fierce. Here’s an excerpt from a letter of opposition written to Congress by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights:

A careful examination of Judge Alito’s record reveals a history of troubling decisions in the areas of civil rights, civil liberties, and fundamental freedoms, decisions that undermine the power of the Constitution and of Congress to protect the civil and human rights of all Americans.

Of particular concern was his opposition to Roe V. Wade, which he made plain in a 1985 job application to join the Reagan administration. His rulings from the bench over his pre-SCOTUS career suggested that he would be far more conservative than even other Republican-appointed judges. There was also the small matter of his membership in “a far-right Princeton alumni network notorious for its hostility to admitting women and African-Americans,” according to The Nation magazine.

Alito is the poster boy for the modern conservative jurist. He’s a hardcore, rightwing true believer. So why are we supposed to act shocked – shocked! – that such a person would let his literal freak flags fly?

This flag also looks like it could double as a sign for a mini-golf place.

One of the few benefits of the Trump years is that they’ve stripped away some of the institutional niceties by which American politics used to play. We’ve always known there was a political class. What we didn’t know is that it’s a class of eighth-graders. Just like middle school, those who choose to ply their trade in Washington are cliquey, bitchy, insecure social climbers who can split into two camps: those who do their homework and those who do not.

Alito is a homework-doer of the highest order, bouncing from Princeton to Yale, then clerking in DC, working in the Justice Department before becoming US Attorney in New Jersey. He was then appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, before making his way to that big pillared building where people sometimes protest. He’s a Federalist Society bigwig and a recipient of conservative largesse, such as when he accepted an Alaskan fishing trip organized by ultra-conservative activist Leonard Leo (a trip which he did not report).

So yeah, it’s a bad look that Alito is flouting convention and propriety, but it’s not impeachable. His views have never been a mystery but now we’re going to act surprised that he has those views?

The way to defeat the Christian Nationalist movement in this country isn’t to point our fingers at their hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is baked into the movement. It’s not to wage war against every time somebody demonstrates that who they are is exactly who we thought they were. The way to win is to be better. Better in our ideas, better in our messaging, better in our moral clarity, and, yes, better in our legislative gamesmanship. Crying foul because somebody expressed an opinion everybody already knows they have is just silly.

Clarence Thomas, on the other hand, is a corrupt motherfucker who needs to be tossed out on his ass.