It has been noted that a reporter with The Washington Post who inquired in 2021 about the upside down American flag outside Samuel Alito’s home faced criticism from the Supreme Court justice’s wife. However, the paper opted not to print the story, as per a new report.
It has been noted that in Saturday’s paper, The Post gave credit to The New York Times for breaking the news this month, then explained why it decided not to go with the story more than three years ago.
The Post decided not to report on the episode at the time because the flag-raising appeared to be the work of Martha-Ann Alito, rather than the justice, and connected to a dispute with her neighbors, a Post spokeswoman said. It was not clear then that the argument was rooted in politics, the spokeswoman said.
Veteran SCOTUS reporter Robert Barnes, who has since retired from The Post, traveled to the Alito’s home on Jan. 20, 2021, the day of Joe Biden’s inauguration, to follow-up on a tip he received about the flag. According to The Post:
(Barnes) encountered the couple coming out of the house. Martha-Ann Alito was visibly upset by his presence, demanding that he “get off my property.”
As he described the information he was seeking, she yelled, “It’s an international signal of distress!”
Alito intervened and directed his wife into a car parked in their driveway, where they had been headed on their way out of the neighborhood. The justice denied the flag was hung upside down as a political protest, saying it stemmed from a neighborhood dispute and indicating that his wife had raised it.
Martha-Ann Alito then got out of the car and shouted in apparent reference to the neighbors: “Ask them what they did!” She said yard signs about the couple had been placed in the neighborhood. After getting back in the car, she exited again and then brought out from their residence a novelty flag, the type that would typically decorate a garden. She hoisted it up the flagpole. “There! Is that better?” she yelled.
Fox News reported this week that Alito’s wife flew the upside down flag because a neighbor used the word “c**t” when addressing her over a political dispute.
Justice Alito says he and his wife were walking in the neighborhood and there were words between Mrs. Alito and a male at the home with the sign. Alito says the man engaged in vulgar language, "including the c-word". 3/
— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) May 17, 2024
