After the 2020 presidential #election, as some #Trump supporters falsely claimed that President #Biden had stolen the office, many of them displayed a startling symbol outside their homes, on their cars & online: an upside-down #AmericanFlag.
One of the homes flying an inverted flag during that time was the residence of #SupremeCourt Justice Samuel A #Alito Jr, in Alexandria, VA, acc/to photographs & interviews w/neighbors.
The upside-down flag was aloft on Jan 17, 2021, images showed. #Trump’s supporters, incl’g some brandishing the same symbol, had rioted at the Capitol a little over a week before. President #Biden’s inauguration was 3 days away. Alarmed neighbors snapped photographs, some…were recently obtained by The NYT. Word of the flag filtered back to the court, people who worked there said in interviews.
While the flag was up, the court was still contending w/whether to hear a #2020election case, w/Justice #Alito on the losing end of that decision. In coming wks, the justices will rule on 2 climactic cases involving the storming of the Capitol on #Jan6, incl’g whether #Trump has #immunity for his actions. Their decisions will shape how accountable he can be held for trying to overturn the last presidential election & his chances for re-election in the upcoming one.
…“I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag, “Justice #Alito emailed NYT. “It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable & personally insulting language on yard signs.”
…Interviews show Alito’s wife, Martha-Ann Alito, had been in a dispute w/another family on the block over an anti-Trump sign on their lawn, given the timing & starkness of the symbol, neighbors interpreted the inverted flag as a #political stmnt by the couple.
#Illinois School Districts Sent Kids to a For-Profit Out-of-State Facility That Isn’t Vetted or Monitored
A state #law was meant to help #families by allowing the use of public money to fund students’ tuition at special education boarding #schools around the country.
But in solving one problem, lawmakers created another.
70 yrs after #SCOTUS delivered its landmark decision outlawing school segregation, #BrownVBoardOfEducation ranks as perhaps the court’s most venerated decision….
Most everything else related to the decision…is complex.
Nearly 7/10 Americans say more should be done to integrate schools…a figure that has steadily climbed from 30% in 1973….But a deeper look into the views of both Black & White people shows skepticism about the success of #Brown….
In its unanimous decision in #Brown, #SCOTUS ruled segregated schools were #unconstitutional & “inherently unequal,” combining 5 cases in which #Black students & their schools had far fewer resources than their #White peers — longer commutes, lower-quality classes, overcrowding, fewer opportunities & less money. Yet 1/3 Black Americans now say integration has failed to improve the #education of Black students….
…The #Brown decision focused on the value of mixing children of different races. But for many #integration activists —then & now— the case is about a path to #fair & #equitable educational #resources. Those legal battles cont. Today’s complex views about #schools & integration come amid persistent #segregation that has risen in recent decades,changes in the #legal landscape & complicated dynamics of #education & #race in #America today.
Because of #Brown, #school ofcls may no longer deliberately separate students by #race —but under more recent #SCOTUS orders, they aren’t allowed to deliberately mix them by race either. #Integration advocates today have stopped looking to the #federal courts for help & are pursuing #state lawsuits instead.…some #Black leaders have concluded that the answer is not integration…but more #money & #opportunity for high #poverty#schools….
"A handful of powerful businessmen pushed New York City Mayor Eric Adams to use police to crack down on pro-Palestinian student protesters at #Columbia University, donating to the politician and offering to pay for private investigators to help break up the demonstrations, based on leaked WhatsApp conversations"
"The mere impression of political opinion can be a problem, the ethics experts said. 'It might be his spouse or someone else living in his home, but he shouldn’t have it in his yard as his message to the world,' said Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia."
"This is 'the equivalent of putting a "Stop the Steal" sign in your yard, which is a problem if you’re deciding election-related cases,' she said."
On the one hand, the Supreme Court has not been favorable, overall, to Trump's reelection. In 2020, they threw out a case brought by Republicans to have four Democratic states ejected from the election, for example.
But on the other hand, now with two justices' wives taking public actions to support Trump's reelection, it's really hard to take the idea of impartiality seriously. If you're the spouse of a justice, and if you took SCOTUS's work seriously, you'd sit it out. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/us/justice-alito-upside-down-flag.html
The spouse of one Supreme Court justice was actively conspiring with Mark Meadows to overturn the results of the 2020 election, while another Supreme Court justice was flying the American flag upside down to show his solidarity with the Big Lie.
Now they're sitting on the DC Felony Trial to buy Trump and his acolytes more time to steal the next election.
America is at a crossroads.
We either turn a blind eye to #scotus reign of corruption, or we take this country back at the ballot box and restore rule of law.
The #Republican-led UnitedStates House of
Representatives passed a bill on Thurs that would force President Joe #Biden to send weapons to Israel, seeking to rebuke the Democrat for delaying bomb shipments as he urges Israel to do more to protect #civilians during its war w/ #Hamas.
The #Israel Security Assistance Support Act was approved 224 to 187, largely along party lines. 16 #Democrats joined most Republicans in voting yes, & 3 #Republicans joined most Democrats in opposing the measure.
The act is not expected to become #law, but its passage underscored the deep #US#election-year divide over Israel policy as PM Benjamin #Netanyahu's government seeks to wipe out militants who attacked Israel on #Oct7….
#Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said Thurs he was pardoning #DanielPerry, the fmr Army sergeant convicted in the fatal shooting of a protester during a #BLM march, after a review board recommended he be released from prison.
…Unsealed court records revealed that he regularly shared #racist memes & threatening content in private msgs & social media posts, including descriptions of killing protesters & minorities.
Perry was convicted of murder in the death of 28-year-old #GarrettFoster, who was legally armed w/ an AK-47 rifle, during a 2020 confrontation in downtown Austin at a racial justice demonstration.
Cross-examination of #MichaelCohen resumes, an opportunity for the defense to poke holes in his testimony & perhaps trip up or provoke the state’s key witness. The questioning of Cohen, #Trump’s fmr fixer, is the beginning of the end of Trump’s #criminal trial, which began April 15 & might conclude before Memorial Day weekend at this pace.
Prosecutors now have 3 days to prepare re-direct, when they will seek to build #MichaelCohen back up & refocus the jurors on the most important elements of their case & the actual charges for which they’ve presented mountains of evidence regardless of whether Cohen is a liar or not.
Known liar Mike Johnson, Byron Donalds, Cory Mills, Doug Burgum & Vivek Ramaswamy hang around lower Manhattan to be trumps gag order gangsters.
Gag order prohibits trump from making comments about jurors / witnesses and also from causing others to make comments about the case, jury or court staff.
Republican politicians who’ve appeared at the felony Trump criminal trial: “I see politicians running toward the sound of the sleaze because that's what their master is demanding them."
"You have to embrace the election denial, the lies, you have Mike Johnson using his position (House Speaker) to violate the gag order, to say things the Judge says, 'do not say.' You have to embrace the lies, you have to embrace the insurrection, you have to embrace the hush money to a porn star, the multiple affairs. You have to embrace the obstruction of Justice. You have to make yourself part of the obstruction of justice."
"We need to remind everybody that this is not normal. This was unthinkable."
"You have to embrace the lies, you have to embrace the insurrection. You have to embrace the obstruction of Justice. You have to make yourself part of the obstruction of justice." Republicans are a criminal organization. 🚨