Alito’s Neighbor Skewers Justice for “Harassing” Her Over Flags

In the weeks after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s wife allegedly hung an upside-down American flag outside of her Virginia home as part of a neighborly feud, she continued to harass her neighbors who supposedly incited her political activism. 

In an interview with NPR, Emily Baden, who hung a “F— Trump” sign at her home after the 2020 election, supposedly spurring the squabble, said that on Inauguration Day, Martha-Ann Alito yelled something at her and her husband’s car and even appeared to spit at them, as they drove down the street. 

In another encounter with her high-profile neighbors, Baden said Justice Alito and his wife walked up to her and her husband in front of their home. Martha-Ann called them by their full names—a chilling moment, Baden said, as they’d never been introduced to the Alitos. 

“And then Mrs. Alito says something like, ‘Well, well, well, if it isn’t the f— fascists!’ and that was when I spoke back,” Baden said. “I did obviously use an expletive, but I also said a lot of other things like, ‘How dare you behave this way?’”

Justice Alito stayed silent, Baden said. Alito has claimed in a letter to Congress that his wife was solely responsible for putting up the flag, and then refused to take it down. The encounter was brief, and the Alitos quickly left, according to Baden.  

“The power imbalance between these people and myself is huge,” said Baden. “They’re choosing to harass and intimidate us, when we are nothing to them.”

According to Baden, this was the last interaction they had, and her husband contacted the cops shortly after, who said they’d reach out to Justice Alito’s security team. Baden also said that she regretted swearing at Martha-Ann. 

Congress has repeatedly asked Alito to recuse himself from all cases related to Donald Trump and the January 6 insurrection because of the upside-down flag and a Christian nationalist flag that flew outside his New Jersey home. Alito has refused, and Chief Justice John Roberts has backed him up.

Alito has thrown his wife under the bus for the flags, saying they were her doing and not indicative of his political beliefs. But Baden isn’t convinced.

“At best, he’s mistaken, but at worst, he’s just outright lying,” she told CNN Wednesday night. “Even if it were a valid excuse that they were having a dispute with a neighbor and that made them put the flag up, that timeline just disproves it. It just doesn’t make sense.”

Senator Tommy Tuberville seems to be under the impression that Russia’s Vladimir Putin doesn’t want to control Ukraine.

The Alabama Republican made the claim on Steve Bannon’s War Room show on Wednesday after Bannon asked about Russia’s war with Ukraine.

“He doesn’t want Ukraine. He doesn’t want Europe. Hell, he’s got enough land of his own,” Tuberville said, referring to Putin. “He just wants to make sure that he does not have United States weapons in Ukraine pointing at Moscow.”

This is completely false. Putin has claimed that Ukraine historically and rightfully belongs to Russia from the start of the war. Tuberville’s claim is yet more proof he may be the biggest Putin sycophant in Congress.

“You can tell Putin’s on top of his game,” Tuberville said in February. “One thing he said that, it really rung a bell, is the propaganda media machine over here, they sell anything they possibly can to go after Russia.”

Also on Wednesday, Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons to continue his war on Ukraine and to provide weapons to other countries who could help attack Western countries who oppose his invasion of Ukraine.

“Ultimately, if we see that these countries are being drawn into a war against us, and this is their direct participation in the war against the Russian Federation, then we reserve the right to act in a similar way,” Putin said. “But, in general, this is the path to very serious problems.”

Watch Tuberville’s comments here:

Trump raised an oddly bigoted insult to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer during an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Wednesday, claiming the strongly pro-Israel politician has become “like a Palestinian.”

“They don’t have the backing,” said Trump, referring to Israel and its devastation of Gaza. “Even Schumer, he’s become like a Palestinian. Chuck Schumer. Jewish. Always strong for Israel. He’s become like a Palestinian.”

Schumer, who is Jewish, has been an ardent supporter of Israel and has regularly warned about rising antisemitism in response to Israel’s violence. In March, Schumer spoke out against Israel’s far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling him a major obstacle to peace who has “lost his way.” Schumer’s rebuke came while calling for new elections in Israel in response to Netanyahu’s refusal to accept cease-fire negotiations or to intervene against settler extremists blocking desperately needed aid to displaced and starving Palestinians.

“The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7th,” Schumer said at the time. “The world has changed—radically—since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past.”

Schumer’s comments reflected the same calls that have been coming from Jews in Israel for months: Polls conducted in November 2023—just weeks after the Hamas attack—found nearly 60 percent of Israelis support a cease-fire. In January, only 15 percent of Israelis supported Netanyahu remaining prime minister after Israel concludes its destruction of Gaza. According to polling in April, 58 percent of Israelis believe Netanyahu should resign immediately. In Israel, hundreds of thousands of Israelis—including family members of those still held captive by Hamas—have protested in favor of a cease-fire and bilateral hostage deal, with anti-government protests breaking out across Israel against Netanyahu and his extremist bloc after they rejected a recent cease-fire deal.

Meanwhile, Trump has promised to deport student protesters in the United States and spoken favorably of Israel’s ongoing destruction of Gaza, saying Israel should “finish the problem” while griping that Israel is “losing the P.R. war.”

House Republicans are pushing for a bill that would allow a current or former president to lift any state case against them and plop it right into a federal court—a clear response to Donald Trump’s most recent New York conviction.

Several House GOP sources told Axios that Republican lawmakers are prodding House Speaker Mike Johnson to call for a floor vote on the bill.

It should surprise no one that the person behind this latest scheme is none other than Donald Trump. Last month, Rolling Stone reported that Trump held “several” meetings with Republican lawmakers and lawyers, asking them to pursue legislation that would permanently shield him from prosecution outside of a federal court.

Attempts to advance this proposed legislation is only the latest desperate effort from Trump’s allies to somehow undo the former president’s guilty verdict, as opposed to simply waiting for an appeal. The bill has reportedly already passed the House Judiciary committee.

At the moment, the floor vote seems unlikely, according to sources close to Johnson, because it’s a little unpopular among some Republicans. Not to mention, it doesn’t stand a chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

If it were miraculously passed into law, the proposed legislation could help Trump clear his record should he be elected in November. While presidents are able to pardon federal convictions, they cannot pardon state ones.

Trump is still facing state-level charges in Georgia for allegedly attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 elections in that state.

Senate Republicans on Wednesday killed legislation that would have protected access to contraception and codified access to birth control into federal law. The Right to Contraception Act failed the Senate by a vote of 51–39, after failing to reach the minimum 60 votes needed to pass. All of the opposition came from Republicans, with the exception of Senator Chuck Schumer who changed his vote from “yes” to “no” in a procedural move in order to bring the vote again in the future.

The only two Republican senators to vote for the bill were Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. Seven Republican senators were not present for the vote.

The bill was first introduced after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. It made its way back through Congress on Tuesday as conservative attacks on bodily autonomy deepen ahead of the November election. Trump recently stated he’s exploring policies to restrict access to birth control, which would impact an estimated 46.9 million people in the United States. It’s not clear that the measure would pass the House, but the roll call is nonetheless a good record of where Republican senators stand on the issue.

Here’s a list of every Republican who voted against the measure:

• John Barrasso—Wyoming
• Marsha Blackburn—Tennessee
• John Boozman—Arkansas
• Ted Budd—North Carolina
• Shelley Moore Capito—West Virginia
• Bill Cassidy—Louisiana
• John Cornyn—Texas
• Tom Cotton—Arkansas
• Kevin Cramer—North Dakota
• Mike Crapo—Idaho
• Ted Cruz—Texas
• Steve Daines—Montana
• Joni Ernst—Iowa
• Deb Fischer—Nebraska
• Chuck Grassley—Iowa
• Josh Hawley—Missouri
• John Hoeven—North Dakota
• Cindy Hyde-Smith—Mississippi
• Ron Johnson—Wisconsin
• James Lankford—Oklahoma
• Mike Lee—Utah
• Cynthia Lummis—Wyoming
• Roger Marshall—Kansas
• Mitch McConnell—Kentucky
• Markwayne Mullin—Oklahoma
• Rand Paul—Kentucky
• Pete Ricketts—Nebraska
• James E. Risch—Idaho
• Mike Rounds—South Dakota
• Marco Rubio—Florida
• Eric Schmitt—Missouri
• Rick Scott—Florida
• Tim Scott—South Carolina
• John Thune—South Dakota
• Thom Tillis—North Carolina
• Tommy Tuberville—Alabama
• Roger Wicker—Mississippi
• Todd Young—Indiana