Martha-Ann Alito, a Kentucky native and University of Kentucky alum, is at the center of one of the U.S. Supreme Court’s biggest controversies.
As a result of the highly publicized flags allegedly hung by Alito, her husband, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, faced calls to recuse herself from potential Supreme Court cases related to the U.S. Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021 and the 2020 presidential election.
The justices are adamant in their refusal to overturn the case, highlighting Martha-Ann’s role in flying the flags, which have ties to the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. They have been seen at rallies in support of former President Donald Trump, who is likely to win the Republican Party’s presidential nomination this summer.
In early 2021, an upside-down American flag flew at the Alito home in Northern Virginia. And a second flag with ties to the Jan. 6 riot, the “Appeal to Heaven,” dates back to the Revolutionary War and flew at the family’s new home. Jersey holiday home.
In letters to Congress this week, the judge reiterated that his flag-raising wife is to blame, and he supports her right to fly with them.
“My wife is a private citizen and she has the same First Amendment rights as any American,” the judge wrote. “She makes her own decisions, and I have always respected her right to do so.”
He added: “My wife loves flying flags. I am not.”
Martha-Ann Alito, formerly Martha-Ann Bomgardner, received her bachelor’s degree in comparative literature from Britain in 1975, according to a copy of the University of Kentucky yearbook from that year reviewed Wednesday by the Herald-Leader.
A commencement program from the same year lists her birthplace as Wiesbaden, Germany – Bomgarden’s father served in the Air Force. In a 2010 Herald-Leader story, Bomgardner studied textiles and merchandising before switching to comparative literature two semesters before graduation.
She subsequently obtained a master’s degree in library science from the UK School of Library and Information Science in 1977, listing New Jersey as her hometown.
She met Samuel Alito who worked as a librarian at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark, New Jersey, where he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. They married five years after their first date.
Judge Alito is considered one of six conservative-leaning justices on the nation’s highest court. He was appointed to the bench by former Republican President George W. Bush in 2006.
In 2010, Martha-Ann Alito was guest of honor at the British Singletary Center.
According to Herald-Leader reporting on her performance, there was no patriotism or flags that evening.
Instead, wearing a sparkling red, white and blue flag brooch, the future Mrs. Alito reminisced about her time in Lexington and growing up in Floyd County at the event hosted by the British College of Law and a now-inactive nonprofit called the Hellenic Ideals Program of the Bluegrass dedicated to promoting ‘ancient Greek principles’.
According to a 2010 Herald-Leader report on the event, Martha-Ann spoke about her roots in Fort Knox — her father served in the Air Force — and about Floyd County. She said her time in Kentucky shaped her, and joked that her New Jersey mother often complained about the amount of time she spent barefoot.
“She just couldn’t keep me in shoes,” Martha-Ann Alito said. “I took that as a point of pride.”
She was invited to speak by then-Deputy Chief Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court, Mary Noble, of Lexington. Noble did not respond to requests for comment this week.
“I thought it would be interesting, when we talk about judicial people, to hear from the family, rather than from the judge,” Noble said before the event in 2010. “My husband often tells me that the perspective of a judge’s family members is often overlooked.
During the event, Alito expressed her frustration with national media coverage of her husband at the time of his 2006 Supreme Court confirmation process.
She said she tried to ignore the “daily ad hominem attacks that bordered on the ridiculous” against her husband. She also recalled reporters walking down her street during that trial interviewing neighbors and family.
Martha-Ann and her husband also attended a reception that weekend, where the couple were named Kentucky Colonels and interacted with many of the area’s legal elite.
This included former Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice John Minton, who referred to Martha-Ann as “friendly, warm and very talkative” in that setting. He also said her speech reflected pride in Lexington.
“My memory was that, in terms of interacting with the students, she was very outgoing, warm and engaged with the students,” Minton said. “She is quite proud of her connection to Kentucky. She had very warm feelings about Lexington and Britain.”
Paul Salamanca, a former professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law, also remembered a talkative Martha-Ann, in contrast to the clearly reserved justice.
“She’s much more outgoing than her husband, who is a bit of a quiet guy,” Salamanca said.
