Flag Man

Two flags, two homes, one Supreme Court justice.

Unlike every other Republican-appointed member of the court, Alito was appointed by a president who had been elected by a popular majority of voters. Though one could argue that George W. Bush's second term was only possible because of his first, which happened without the popular vote, and his second election required both the effect of 9/11 and the swift-boating of John Kerry.

Alito's nomination also followed the stalking-horse nomination of Harriet Myers. Oh, Harriet. Now we wish you had gotten the nomination.

New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie had a couple of brief things to say on BlueSky about Alito and the meaning of his home-flying flags after the second one was reported:

if it already wasn’t apparent from his behavior on the court, Alito is straightforwardly an insurrectionist and should not be there.

and

it can’t be said enough how much these people hate your freedom to live as you choose

He also wrote a column about the topic after the first flag was reported.

My two local papers today both had syndicated political cartoons on the topic:

Yesterday's Alito-authored Supreme Court decision on gerrymandering in South Carolina was yet another bunch of drek about originalism, with Clarence Thomas concurring in ways that imply the rollback of Brown v. Board of Education. So that's where we are — not that anyone should be surprised.