By John Fritze | CNN
A neighbor of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito called police in 2021 following an exchange with the jurist’s wife, claiming that someone needed to “make her stop,” according to a report Tuesday in the New York Times.
“Somebody in a position of authority needs to talk to her and make her stop,” the neighbor told police in Fairfax County, Virginia, according to a recording of the call reviewed by the Times.
The call was placed by the husband of a neighbor who exchanged words with Alito’s wife, Martha-Ann Alito, after the neighbor put up yard signs critical of Republicans. Justice Alito told the Times in a statement earlier this month that the flag was hoisted in response to a “neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”
The police, according to the report, did not take any action based on the call.
The neighbor did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN, which has not independently verified the content of the call. The Supreme Court did not respond to a request for comment.
The revelation is the latest development in an ongoing story of an inverted US flag hoisted outside Alito’s home in 2021, days before President Joe Biden was inaugurated. The inverted flag became a symbol for supporters of former President Donald Trump and was seen during the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
Alito has faced sharp criticism for the inverted flag, including from Democrats and some GOP senators, who have called on him to recuse himself from cases involving Trump and the 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Days later, the Times published images of a second flag – the Appeal to Heaven flag – hoisted at Alito’s home in New Jersey. That flag, which has a history dating to the Revolutionary War, has also become a symbol for Trump’s supporters.