Two top Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee requested a meeting with Chief Justice John Roberts to address the Supreme Court’s “ethical crisis” following reports that controversial flags were flown at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 by some supporters of the former President Donald Trump. were also displayed in the homes of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
In the letter released Friday, Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill. and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island asked to meet with Roberts “as soon as possible” and renewed their “call for the Supreme Court to adopt an enforceable code of conduct for judges.”
The senators wrote that Alito “cast reasonable doubt as to his impartiality” and renewed calls for him to recuse himself in cases related to Trump and the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
The Supreme Court will currently hear two cases related to January 6: Trump’s presidential immunity claim in his election interference case and an appeal against a man charged for his actions at the US Capitol.
Their request comes after the New York Times reported that Alito flew an upside-down American flag at his home in Virginia in January 2021. At the time, weeks after rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the flag was a symbol used by those in the “Stop the Steal” movement, who believe President Joe Biden did not win the 2020 presidential election.
After the initial report, Durbin told NBC News he had no plans to open an investigation into the matter, but repeated calls for Alito to recuse himself from cases involving Trump.
A subsequent report in the Times revealed that an “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which was also flown by some of the January 6 protesters, was flown indefinitely at the Alitos’ New Jersey vacation home.
News of Alito’s flags comes amid a litany of stories that have raised questions about the court’s ethical standards and calls for judges to recuse themselves from certain cases. Judge Clarence Thomas and his wife Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, a conservative activist who supported Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Durbin and Whitehouse also reference Thomas in their letter, writing that the judge has “repeatedly participated in matters related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol and the alleged surrounding plot to overturn the 2020 election.”
“His wife’s involvement constituted probable cause for denial under the federal denial statute,” the senators wrote. “but it appears that the Court failed to ask what the facts were, particularly the critical facts about what Judge Thomas knew about his wife’s interactions with alleged participants and when he knew it.”
The senators also reiterated calls for the court to take “meaningful action” to address the “ongoing ethics crisis” by adopting an enforceable code of ethics. In November 2023, the court issued a 14-page code of conduct that did not specify how ethics complaints would be enforced.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
