WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Democratic senators are requesting a meeting with Chief Justice John Roberts after reports that two separate flags carried by rioters during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol were flown outside the home of Justice Samuel Alito.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-I., a member of the Judiciary panel, wrote Roberts Thursday requesting a meeting to discuss the Supreme Court’s ethics and take steps to ensure that Alito recuses himself from any cases in court related to the Jan. 6 attack or former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
“We request that we meet with you as soon as possible, in your capacity as Chief Justice and as President of the Judicial Conference of the United States, to discuss additional steps to address the Supreme Court’s ethics crisis,” Durbin and Whitehouse wrote Roberts. in a letter released by both offices on Friday.
The senators’ letter comes as another conservative judge, Clarence Thomas, has ignored calls to recuse himself from cases related to the 2020 election over his wife Ginni Thomas’ support of Trump and because of the confidence of the public in the Supreme Court is at its lowest point. in at least 50 years.
The court did not respond to a request for comment on the letter.
The court is considering two key issues related to the attack on the Capitol, including the charges the rioters faced and whether Trump has immunity from prosecution on election interference charges. Alito is participating in both cases and has rejected calls from Democrats in the past to weigh in on other issues.
The New York Times reported last week that an upside-down American flag was seen at Alito’s home outside Washington less than two weeks after the attack on the Capitol. This week, the newspaper reported that an “Appeal to Heaven” flag was flown outside the judge’s beach house in New Jersey last summer. Both flags were carried by rioters who violently stormed the Capitol in January 2021, following Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
Alito has said that the upside-down American flag was flown by his wife during a dispute with neighbors and that he had no part in it. He and the court declined to respond to requests for comment on how the “Appeal to Heaven” flag flew and what it was intended to express.
Legal codes of ethics focus on the need for judges to be independent, avoiding political statements or opinions on matters they could decide. The Supreme Court has long been without its own code of ethics, but adopted one in November 2023 despite continued criticism over secret trips and gifts from wealthy benefactors to some judges.
However, the code lacks a means to enforce the law, and the judiciary last year passed legislation that would set stricter standards. But Republicans are firmly opposed to any attempt to tell the court what to do.
Durbin and Whitehouse said they will continue to put pressure on the court. But the call for a meeting is a new approach after Roberts refused to testify at a Supreme Court ethics hearing last year.
“Until the Court and the Judicial Conference take meaningful action to address this ongoing ethics crisis, we will continue our efforts to enact legislation to resolve this crisis,” they wrote.
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Associated Press writers Mark Sherman and Lindsey Whitehurst contributed to this report.
