The Mrs. defense: powerful men blaming their wives

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Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito doesn’t deny there was an upside-down American flag flying outside his house days before Joe Biden was sworn in as president, an apparent distress signal that would seem to express sympathy with the plight of Donald Trump supporters who refused to believe their guy lost the 2020 election.

But Alito did offer an excuse for the flag, which had become a symbol of the “Stop the Steal” movement before and after the election.

“I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag,” Alito said in a written statement to The New York Times, which first reported the story. “It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”

So the wife did it to get back at the neighbors. Her first name is Martha-Ann, by the way.

A Supreme Court justice being unmasked as having a partisan tilt wouldn’t be illegal – just awkward and icky. Alito won’t even have to recuse himself from any cases for possibly showing an electoral preference since there’s no binding code of ethics for Supreme Court justices. He clarified on May 29 in a letter to lawmakers that he would not recuse himself from any cases as a result of the flag controversy. His wife, Alito said, is entitled to her First Amendment rights.

“My wife is fond of flying flags,” Alito wrote. “I am not.”

And the Alito flag incident is small time compared with the direct involvement of Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife Ginni in the “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6, 2021, and her active texting with officials in the White House about how to