Samuel Alito’s scandal from hell
The story so far. It was recently revealed that an upside down American flag, symbol of the January 6 insurrection, was flown outside of the Alexandria, Virginia, home of SCOTUS justice Samuel Alito. Alito claimed his wife flew the flag in a (very odd) response to a neighbour posting a “F*ck Trump” sign outside their home. Alito embellished this claim with a lie, as liars frequently do. He said the neighbour’s sign was posted near a school bus stop and it would therefore be seen by children waiting at that stop. Except it turns out that the contretemps occurred during a Covid-19 lockdown when the children weren’t in school, so they wouldn’t have seen the sign.
Now it has come to light that another type of provocative flag, an “An Appeal to Heaven” flag, was flown outside Alito’s summer home in New Jersey. The flag displays a single pine tree on a white background underneath the slogan, “An Appeal to Heaven” in black bold lettering, a phrase based on the writings of philosopher John Locke, who suggested that people must “appeal to heaven” when there is no proper rule of law.
But doesn’t Alito represent the rule of law? Doesn’t he in fact represent the final appeal? Why does Alito advocate an appeal to heaven when the Supreme Court is supposed to uphold a Constitution that insists that religion should play no role in government?
The “An Appeal to Heaven” flag was originally used as a symbol in the American Revolution. It was flown in an effort to enlist God in the armed contest against the British government. It was later used by the January 6 insurrectionists. The flag’s message is clear. It is an appeal for armed conflict against the lawfully constituted government. By flying that flag, Alito is publicly declaring that he’s in sympathy with the January 6 insurrectionists, that he is in sympathy with the armed overthrow of the United States government.
Appeal to heaven is a “paraphrase for trial by arms,” according to historian Anthony Grafton. It is used today as an anti-democracy profanity. It’s clear that Alito is in favour of using violence to overthrow the current government. It’s clear he wants to replace that government with a fundamentalist, christofascist dictatorship.
There exists no traditional way to remove Alito and the five other Trump whores who serve on the Supreme Court. But we can make life very difficult for them. One way would be for Joe Biden to expand the Court from 9 to 13 members. Another way would be to simply ignore the court.
Can we do that? Certainly. Abraham Lincoln did. If Democrats secure a majority in Congress then we can simply refuse to obey the Supreme Court any longer. The court has no legal means of enforcement. It has no army, no guns, no police force. Why not just ignore them?
Another thing we can do with a majority in Congress is we can impeach Alito and the other SCOTUS Trump whores one at a time and eject them from office. Again, this would be very difficult. But I’m outlining the options, not the problems inherent in realising those options.
Whatever we do or don’t do, it’s clear that the SCOTUS is no longer a legitimately functioning branch of the federal government. It has been infiltrated by MAGA Trump whores. It is an obscenity, a cancer on the neck of America. Somehow, some way, it must be stopped. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
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Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.