Earlier this month, Justice Samuel Alito explained that an inverted flag hoisted above his Virginia home was in response to a dispute Martha-Ann Alito was having with their neighbors. According to the Justice, Mrs. Alito was responding to the “neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”
A photo was published that showed the inverted flag at the Alitos’ Virginia home on Jan. 17, 2021.
A new report from the New York Times says that police in Fairfax County, Virginia, received an unusual phone call on Feb. 15, 2021. A young couple claimed they were being harassed by the wife of a Supreme Court justice.
“Somebody in a position of authority needs to talk to her and make her stop,” said the 36-year-old man making the complaint, according to a recording of the call reviewed by The Times.
The couple placed the call after a series of encounters with Mrs. Alito that had gone from uneasy to ugly. That day, Emily Baden, whose boyfriend (now husband) contacted the police, had traded accusations with Mrs. Alito, who lived down the street. In a recent interview, Ms. Baden admitted to calling her a lewd epithet.
But according to Justice Alito in an interview with Fox News, “there were words between Mrs. Alito and a male at the home with the sign.” The justice said the man used “vulgar language, ‘including the C-word,’” After that exchange, “Mrs. Alito was distraught and hung the flag upside-down,” the Fox reporter relayed.
Ms. Baden says she never saw the upside-down flag, and was surprised to read about the account of the Alitos which included her playing a central role in the occasion.
“Aside from putting up a sign, we did not begin or instigate any of these confrontations,” said Ms. Baden.
Following the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, the couple soon put up new signs in their yard, saying “Trump Is a Fascist” and “You Are Complicit.”
Baden said the second sign was not directed at Mrs. Alito, but at Republicans who refused to condemn the attacks.
It’s not clear whether Mrs. Alito saw those signs, but the day after the Capitol riot, as the couple parked in front of their home, she pulled up in her car, they said. She lingered there, glaring, for a long moment, recalled the couple, who texted their friends about the encounter.