Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito: Major Controversies And Latest Uproar Over New Flag Outside His Home

 Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has come under fire several times in the past week after The New York Times reported an upside-down flag and an “Appeal To Heaven” flag flew outside his houses—the latest in a string of controversies the conservative justice has faced, which have accelerated in recent years.

Jan. 2006
Alito’s Supreme Court tenure started with controversy, as the American Civil Liberties Union opposed his nomination over Alito’s support of policies that “abridge individual freedoms,” and Alito’s wife exited the confirmation hearing in tears after Democrats brought up his involvement with a Princeton University alumni group that didn’t accept women and minorities as members.

Jan. 2010
Alito openly opposes then-President Barack Obama during his State of the Union speech as Obama criticized the court’s recent campaign finance ruling, with Alito shaking his head and mouthing, “Not true,” as the president spoke—a rarity for Supreme Court justices, who typically do not show emotion during the State of the Union speech.

June 2015
Alito writes a dissenting opinion in the Obergefell v. Hodges case that legalized same-sex marriage, fretting that the ruling will be “used to vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent to the new orthodoxy”—an opinion that’s continued to draw controversy in the ensuing years as Alito has doubled down, most recently in a February order denying a sex discrimination case.

Nov. 2020
Alito delivers a controversial speech at a Federalist Society convention in which he decried Covid restrictions for infringing on individual liberties and took aim at threats by Democratic lawmakers to restructure the court, also suggesting the left poses a threat to free speech and religious liberty.

June 2022
Alito writes the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and led to nationwide protests and threats against justices—a controversy that began even before the ruling came out, as Politico leaked the opinion in May.

July 2022
Alito delivers a speech at Notre Dame Law School in which he decried foreign critics lashing out against the court’s abortion opinion, saying he “had the honor this term of writing I think the only Supreme Court decision in the history of that institution that has been lambasted by a whole string of foreign leaders” and noting they felt “perfectly fine commenting on American law.”

Nov. 2022
The Times reports a conservative activist knew the ruling in 2014’s Burwell v. Hobby Lobby before it came out, allegedly discovering the outcome after donors of his had dinner with Alito—which sparked a congressional hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, though Alito denied the accusations, telling the Times the suggestion he or his wife disclosed the ruling was “completely false.”

June 2023
ProPublica reports Alito took a luxury fishing trip with billionaire Paul Singer, whose hedge fund has repeatedly had business before the court, without disclosing it—which Alito defended in a fiery Wall Street Journal op-ed that came out before the ProPublica report, entitled “ProPublica Misleads Its Readers.”

July 2023
Alito assails efforts by congressional Democrats to impose a code of ethics on the court in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, claiming Congress doesn’t have the power to do so—which legal experts slammed as false—also drawing criticism because the interview was done by David Rivkin, a lawyer who’s representing parties in a Supreme Court case this term that Alito has refused to recuse himself from.

May 2024
The Times reports Alito flew a flag upside down outside his house in Jan. 2021—when supporters of the “Stop the Steal” effort were using the symbol to protest the 2020 election—which reportedly “alarmed” Alito’s neighbors and led them to report the flag to the court; ethics experts believe the move likely violated rules barring justices from displaying any political biases.

May 2024
Alito sold shares of Anheuser-Busch in Aug. 2023, around the time the company came under fire for partnering with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, Law Dork first reported, raising questions over whether the justice participated in a right-wing boycott against Bud Light.

May 2024
An “Appeal To Heaven” flag—a Revolutionary War-era symbol now often used by religious conservatives and Trump supporters—was spotted flying outside the justice’s New Jersey vacation home last year, the Times reported.

The Times’ reporting on Alito’s flag flying comes as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on two cases related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, taking up former President Donald Trump’s motion to dismiss the federal charges against him for trying to overturn the election and criminal charges brought against a Jan. 6 rioter. Ethics experts have argued Alito should recuse from those cases in light of the flag’s symbolism, though he’s unlikely to do so. “I think it would be better for the court if he weren’t involved in cases arising from the 2020 election,” former federal judge and Berkeley Judicial Institute director Jeremy Fogel told the Times. “But I’m pretty certain that he will see that differently.”

Alito has strongly opposed the ethics controversies involving him that have recently sprung up, and told the Times that he “had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag,” claiming “it was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.” He has not yet responded to the controversy over his Anheuser-Busch shares. In his Wall Street Journal op-ed that came out ahead of ProPublica’s allegations involving Singer, Alito wrote that he had “no obligation to recuse” in any cases that involved Singer or his hedge fund, he did not believe that he had to disclose the trip per Supreme Court rules, and justified the trip itself, saying he flew on Singer’s private jet “in a seat that, as far as I am aware, would have otherwise been vacant.” ​​“I marvel at all the nonsense that has been written about me in the last year,” Alito told the Journal when the publication later interviewed him in July, saying that while “the traditional idea about how judges and justices should behave is they should be mute” in the face of criticism and let others defend them, “that’s just not happening. And so at a certain point I’ve said to myself, nobody else is going to do this, so I have to defend myself.”

In the early days of his judicial career, Alito was nicknamed “Scalito” for his similarities with late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, a nickname that dates back to as early as 1992, CBS News reported in 2005.

NoireTV estimates Alito’s net worth at $10 million, making him the second-richest justice behind Chief Justice John Roberts. Alito’s wealth is largely based on his sizable inheritance and investment portfolio. Associate Supreme Court justices take an annual salary of roughly $300,000.


Alito’s controversies make up only a portion of the ethics scandals that have plagued justices in recent years, as criticism over the Supreme Court’s alleged ethics infractions has ramped up. Justice Clarence Thomas has come under fire repeatedly for his association with real estate magnate Harlan Crow, who has spent decades treating Thomas to luxury vacations, and for his wife Ginni Thomas’ right-wing activism and efforts to help overturn the 2020 election. (Thomas, like Alito, has also not recused from any Jan. 6-related cases.) Justice Sonia Sotomayor has also come under scrutiny after the Associated Press reported Sotomayor’s staff have “prodded” public institutions where the justice was speaking to buy copies of her books, and Justice Neil Gorsuch faced questions over a Politico report that he sold real estate to the head of a law firm with business before the court in 2017, among other controversies. Justices have denied any wrongdoing, though the court announced a new code of ethics in November designed to help address some of the public concerns. Legal experts have criticized that code for not going far enough, however, most notably by not imposing any consequences should justices violate it.