Hakeem Jeffries Calls Out Samuel Alito For 'Sympathizing' With Jan. 6 Rioters

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) criticized Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for “disrespecting the American flag” and called for increased ethical standards for the high court.

A report by The New York Times on Friday revealed that an upside-down American flag could be seen flying outside Alito’s home not long after the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol building.

After Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, the upside-down flag became a symbol of the “Stop the Steal” movement and was displayed by supporters of baseless election conspiracy theories.

“Samuel Alito should apologize immediately for disrespecting the American flag and sympathizing with right-wing violent insurrectionists,” Jeffries said in a statement Friday evening, responding to the Times report.

Alito told the Times that his wife put up the upside-down flag after their neighbors used “objectionable and personally insulting language” on yard signs. She hung the flag in response to a dispute with neighbors over a lawn sign that blamed her for the Jan. 6 riot, the justice told Fox News on Friday.

Echoing a similar call made by Sen. Dirk Dubin (D-Ill.) following the release of the Times report on Friday, Jeffries said that Alito should recuse himself from cases involving the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and called for ethics reforms.

“Congress should immediately consider legislation to impose an ethical code of conduct on a runaway Supreme Court. The Constitution demands and the American people deserve more from a justice serving on the highest court in the land than baseless election denial,” Jeffries said in the statement.

In November, the Supreme Court adopted an ethics code for the first time