Public outrage continues this week in response to the disturbing New York Times report that, in the days after the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021, a symbol of support for the insurrection was displayed at the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. The justice has half-heartedly tried to deflect blame onto his wife with some convoluted tale involving her bickering with the neighbors, but in the end, there's no real evading the conclusion: The Alitos publicly hat-tipped the fascist effort to overthrow democracy because they backed Donald Trump's attempted coup. Now there's a growing chorus of people, including Senate Democrats, calling on Alito to recuse himself from all coup-related cases, including one involving Trump's claims to be "immune" from prosecution for his attempts to steal the 2020 election.
Like Justice Clarence Thomas, whose own wife was intimately involved in the attempted coup plot, Alito is almost certainly going to blow off all the criticism. Chief Justice John Roberts, for his part, will likely allow it. This is for one simple reason: The entire GOP majority on the court is complicit with Trump's designs to end democracy.
