Alito’s neighbor gives detailed account of ‘ugly’ dispute that became national news: NPR

A former liberal neighbor of conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is publicly accounting for a series of tense interactions she had with Alito’s wife, Martha-Ann, around the time of the 2020 presidential election and the month of January. September 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

The saga began as an argument over anti-Trump signs and culminated in a profanity-laced confrontation in the street, which Justice Alito witnessed.

“It’s one of the craziest things I’ve ever experienced in my life,” neighbor Emily Baden said in an interview with NPR. “The power imbalance between these people and me is enormous. Like it literally couldn’t get any bigger.

Justice Alito cited this neighborhood conflict as context for the upside-down American flag that flew outside his Northern Virginia home in the days after the Capitol riot.

Sailors have always used the inverted flag as a symbol of distress. More recently, the inverted American flag has also been associated with the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” movement and efforts to keep the former president in power. Some Trump supporters waved upside-down flags during the January protest. 6 riot. Because of this association, Democrats have asked Alito to recuse himself from cases related to Trump and the insurrection.

Alito rejected those arguments and said his wife alone — over Justice Alito’s objections — raised the flag upside down after the argument with Baden.

“My wife’s reasons for flying the flag are irrelevant to the present,” Alito wrote to Democratic members of Congress, “but I note that she was very upset at the time, largely over because of a very unpleasant neighborhood conflict during which I had no involvement.

He said his wife was also solely responsible for displaying another flag, known as the “Call to Heaven,” at the Alito, New Jersey, beach house. This flag dates back to the American Revolution and in recent years has also been adopted by some far-right religious conservatives. “My wife loves flying flags,” Alito wrote. “I’m not.”

Baden told NPR that Alito’s explanation for the upside-down flag is “ridiculous” and doesn’t fit the timeline of the neighborhood conflict. Baden acknowledges that she called Martha-Ann Alito the “C-word” on the street during a meeting, which she says was initiated by Martha-Ann Alito. But she notes that the incident took place weeks After The overturned flag was raised in front of Alito’s residence, according to the New York Times which revealed the affair.

The Supreme Court did not respond to NPR’s request for comment.

A series of increasingly stormy encounters

Baden and her husband (then boyfriend) moved into her mother’s house in northern Virginia in 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced her to stop working as an actress and restaurant waitress in New York.

Baden describes herself as a “leftist,” but says that at first she didn’t think much of the Alitos down the street. The Alito house is further down the cul-de-sac and is not visible from his mother’s front yard.

After Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, Baden celebrated and installed a handmade sign in the yard. On one side it said “BYE-DON” and on the other “F*** Trump”.

One day, Baden said, the wind blew the sign down. According to Baden, Martha-Ann Alito walked by and thanked Baden for removing the sign. But Baden had no intention of dropping the sign.

“I said, ‘I’m going to keep the registration.’ THANKS. Bye.’ Or something like that. And that was it,” she said.

After January. On December 6, 2021, during the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Baden posted a new sign reading “You are complicit” and “Trump is a fascist.”

The next day, Baden says she and her husband were sitting in their car parked in front of her mother’s house when someone drove up beside them.

“The person inside is just looking at us, just looking at us,” Baden says. “And I was just sitting there going, ‘oh, my God, it’s Mrs. Alito. It’s her.’ And she stopped there for what seemed like an eternity, and then she left again.

“I texted friends like, ‘You’ll never believe what just happened.’ I’m so weird right now,” she says.

About a week later, according to the New York Times, the upside-down American flag began flying in front of the Alitos’ house. Baden says she’s never seen him.

Then, in January. On December 20, 2021, Joe Biden was scheduled to be inaugurated as president. Baden says she and her husband decided to drive past the Alito house out of curiosity.

“I don’t know if I expected to see something or what I expected to see,” she said.

Baden said Martha Ann-Alito was outside the house.

“And she sees us and runs down the street and she screams something and we don’t hear her,” Baden says. “Our windows are up and we are on the move. So we don’t hear what she screams.

The street is a dead end, forcing Baden and her husband to turn around and drive past the Alito house a second time.

“And we see in our rearview mirror that she’s spitting on our car, or it looks like she spit on our car and then we ran out of there,” Baden says. According to Baden, Alito was not close enough to the car to make contact.

The final – and most heated – meeting between Baden and the Alitos took place on February 1. 15, 2021.

“My husband and I are right in the driveway. We collect the trash. And then the Alitos” – Justice Alito and Martha-Ann Alito – “came up, they were supposed to just be walking around. »

Baden says she and her husband started seeing them.

“And then Mrs. Alito says something like, ‘Well, well, well, if it’s not the fucking fascists, Emily and my husband’s name and my mother’s name, you’re – you’re a f**** * *fascist.'”

Baden says she was surprised to hear Martha-Ann Alito use each of their full names. Baden had never introduced herself by name, and she and her husband were not yet married and did not share a last name.

“And that’s when I responded,” Baden says. “I just said, ‘How dare you behave this way? You represent the highest court in the land. What are you doing? I am a stranger to you. Is it because of my sign? That’s crazy.'”

Baden acknowledges that she called Martha-Ann Alito the “C-word.”

Alito described the use of “foul language” in his letter and “the most vile epithet that could be directed at a woman.”

Baden told NPR that she now regrets using the word.

“They choose to harass and intimidate us when we are nothing to them. We’re just random people,” Baden says. “So that would have been the message I wanted to convey. And, you know, what if a swear word was demeaned in some way, then, yeah, I would say I regret saying it.

Baden says Justice Alito remained silent throughout the meeting. As Baden screamed, the Alitos walked away.

“Mr. Alito is moving away a lot quicker,” she recalls. “He really got away with it.”

Shortly after, Baden’s husband called the police and recorded the call. She shared the recording with NPR. The responding officer told them there was nothing he could do after the fact, but said he would call the Alitos Protection Unit.

He told Baden’s husband to call the police again if there was another incident. But Baden said that was the last time the Alitos and Baden met.

“My wife is a private citizen and has the same First Amendment rights as every other American,” Alito wrote in his letter to Congress. “She makes her own decisions and I have always respected her right to do so.”