Alito rejects calls to quit Supreme Court cases on Trump and Jan. 6 because of flag controversies

FILE - Associate Justice Samuel Alito joins other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a new group portrait, Oct. 7, 2022, at the Supreme Court building in Washington. Alito rejects calls to step aside from Supreme Court cases on Trump and Jan. 6. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

 Justice Samuel Alito is rejecting calls to step aside from Supreme Court cases involving former President Donald Trump and Jan. 6 defendants, saying his wife hoisted the two controversial flags that flew above their homes.

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

In letters to members of Congress, Alito said his wife, Martha-Ann, was responsible for flying both an upside-down flag over their home in 2021 and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag at their New Jersey beach house last year. Both flags were like those carried by rioters who violently stormed the Capitol in January 2021 while echoing Trump’s false claims of election fraud.