The Old Gray Lady In Distress
When Jodi Kantor of the New York Times published her story about the Alitos’ flag flap from 2021, I wondered why it took more than three years for the story to surface. Turns out a reputable journalist, Bob Barnes of the Washington Post, investigated the issue at the time, and realized there was no story there. And Barnes was right.
Before I proceed, I pause to note my personal regret that I did not write to celebrate Barnes’s remarkable career. He stepped down on December 31, 2023, after seventeen years at the Post. (Bob told me he did not have to write about the Chief Justice’s final New York’s eve message.) I recently attended a conference with Barnes, and everyone in the room celebrated his careful and accurate reporting. Bob will be sorely missed.
Justin Jouvenal and Ann Marimow, who both now write about the Court for the Post, provide the play-by-play of what happened:
On Jan. 20, 2021 — the day of Biden’s inauguration, which the Alitos did not attend — Barnes went to their home to follow up on the tip about the flag. He 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 t
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