The wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Martha-Ann Alito, complained about having to look at a Pride flag, according to a secret recording.
Alito made the remark during the Supreme Court Historical Society’s annual dinner on June 3 to Lauren Windsor, who was posing as a conservative supporter. It comes amid a string of controversies for the conservative Supreme Court justice and his wife.
“You know what I want?” the justice’s wife said according to the recording. “I want a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag because I have to look across the lagoon at the Pride flag for the next month.”
She went on to say that after stating her need for a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag, her husband responded: “Oh, please, don’t put up a flag.”
“He’s like, ‘Oh please don’t put up a flag.’ I said, ‘I won’t do it because I’m deferring to you. But when you are free of this nonsense, I’m putting it up and I’m going to send them a message every day. Maybe every week, I’ll be changing the flags,” she said.
She added that she would come up with her own flag, which would be white with yellow and orange flames and read, in Italian, “shame.”
The secret recording of Alito was posted online late Monday by Windsor, who describes herself as a documentary filmmaker and “advocacy journalist.”
Windsor, who has previously approached conservatives including former Vice President Mike Pence, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio and Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, posted edited recordings of Alito’s remarks, as well as a separate recording of Justice Alito from the same night in which he agreed the US should “return to a place of godliness.”
“People in this country who believe in God have got to keep fighting for that — to return our country to a place of godliness,” Windsor told Justice Alito.
“I agree with you. I agree with you,” he responded.
He was also heard agreeing with the statement from Windsor that there is “no negotiating with the radical left.”
Meanwhile, in a recording from the Supreme Court Historical Society’s 2023 dinner, which Windsor also published, Justice Alito could be heard accusing the media of “eroding trust” in the US justice system in the eyes of American citizens.
“It’s easy to blame the media but I do blame them because they do nothing but criticize us,” he said.
The recordings come as the judge and his wife have been in the spotlight following controversy over several flags placed outside their homes in both Virginia and New Jersey.
Earlier this month, The New York Times revealed that an upside-down American flag was flown at Justice Alito’s Virginia home in January 2021 following the 2020 presidential election – a symbol used by the “Stop the Steal” movement supporting Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
It was subsequently revealed that an “Appeal to Heaven” flag was flown at Alito’s New Jersey vacation home, a symbol carried by rioters on January 6.
Following the revelations, Justice Alito blamed his wife for the incident, saying she put up the upside-down flag in response to a “very nasty neighborhood dispute”, which apparently involved the Alito’s former neighbour, Emily Baden, using the term “c***” in an exchange with his wife.
Baden has disputed this account, suggesting Justice Alito is “at worst outright lying” about the details of the exchange.
Justice Alito has sought to distance himself from the dispute, writing in a letter published last month to more than 30 members of Congress that he was unaware the upside-down American flag was being flown. He said that when he asked his wife to take it down, she “refused”.
“My wife is a private citizen, and she possesses the same First Amendment rights as every other American. She makes her own decisions, and I have always respected her right to do so,” he wrote.
The judge then explained that he had “nothing to do whatsoever” with the “An Appeal to Heaven” flag, which was just one of the “wide variety of flags” his wife has flown over the years.
These include a flag thanking veterans, college flags, flags supporting sports teams, state and local flags, flags of nations, flags of places they visited, seasonal flags and religious flags, he wrote.
“My wife is fond of flying flags,” he wrote. “I am not.”
Ms Alito discussed the controversy at the Supreme Court Historical Society dinner, according to the secret recording, telling Windsor that “feminazis” think her husband should “control” her.
“The feminazis believe that he should control me,” she was recorded as saying. “So they’ll go to hell. He never controls me.”
According to the recording, Windsor later told Alito that she was upset by the attention that “the media” has devoted to the significance of the flags and whether Samuel Alito ought to recuse himself from two January 6-related cases in light of the revelations.
Alito then offered some advice to Windsor: “Don’t get angry,” she said. “Get even.”
A bit later, when Windsor lamented how “they’re persecuting you, and you’re like a convenient stand-in for anybody who is religious,” Alito suggested that she was going to “come after” the media.
“Look at me. I’m German, from Germany. My heritage is German. You come after me, I’m going to give it back to you. And there will be a way—it doesn’t have to be now—but there will be a way they will know. Don’t worry about it,” she said, before quoting the Bible.
“Psalm 27 is my psalm,” she told Windsor. “‘The Lord is my God and my rock. Of whom shall I be afraid?’ Nobody.”
Alito later agreed with her husband’s stance that there is “no negotiating with the radical left” after Windsor recalled the conversation she had had with Justice Alito.
“They feel,” Alito said. “They don’t think.”
