Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has rebuffed a request from a pair of Democratic senators for a meeting to discuss a leftist-inspired ‘controversy’ involving a flag flown at two of Justice Samuel Alito’s homes.

In recent weeks, Democrats latched onto media reports that flags associated with former President Donald Trump’s questioning of the 2020 election results had been flown for a time at Alito’s references, leading Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) to request a meeting to demand that Roberts take steps to see that Alito recuses himself from Jan. 6-related cases.

The senators “had asked that Alito not take part in two cases – one involving Trump’s bid for immunity from prosecution and another involving an obstruction charge against a Trump supporter who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021” riot at the U.S. Capitol Building, Reuters reported.

Durbin, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Whitehouse, a committee member, sent a letter to Roberts on May 23 following reports in The New York Times that an inverted U.S. flag was flown outside Justice Alito’s Virginia home, and a flag bearing the slogan “Appeal to Heaven” was flown at his New Jersey vacation home.

The senators argued that Alito’s permission to display flags created “reasonable doubt as to his impartiality,” demanding recusal. Some Capitol rioters carried similar flags in support of Trump.

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The flags have become associated with the “Stop the Steal” movement due to Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen through widespread voting fraud.

In a return letter to the two senators, Roberts pointed out that Supreme Court justices only meet with lawmakers “on rare occasions.”

“Separation of powers concerns and the importance of preserving judicial independence counsel against such appearances,” Roberts wrote.

Roberts noted further: “Moreover, the format proposed – a meeting with leaders of only one party who have expressed an interest in matters currently pending before the court – simply underscores that participating in such a meeting would be inadvisable.”

Alito rejected requests to recuse himself from the cases in letters to Democratic lawmakers, claiming that the incidents did not meet the criteria for recusal set forth by the justices last year.

He expressed his belief that he had an “obligation to sit.”

Alito, a member of the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, told the lawmakers that his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, was responsible for flying the in-question flags and that he had no involvement. Alito added that she was exercising her right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution. “She makes her own decisions, and I have always respected her right to do so,” Alito wrote.

The two cases at issue have already been argued before the court; rulings on both are expected sometime this month.

Trump expressed optimism following a recent hearing at the U.S. Supreme Court during which his legal team argued for “presidential immunity” regarding charges brought against him by special counsel Jack Smith. Trump spoke to reporters last month outside the Manhattan courtroom where his hush money trial was taking place and said that he thinks it was “made clear” that a president “has to have immunity.”

“I was forced to be here, and I’m glad I was because it was a very interesting day in a certain way,” Trump told reporters. “The U.S. Supreme Court had a monumental hearing on immunity and the immunity having to do with presidential immunity. And I think it was made clear, I hope it is very clear, that a president has to have immunity.”

Legal experts are divided over the issue, however, with some arguing that a president cannot be hampered with doubts about post-presidential prosecution for actions taken in an official capacity, while others insist the founders did not want presidents to have “absolute” immunity.