Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Sen. Dick Durbin, and other left-wing pundits and politicians dogpiled Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for flying the traditional Appeal to Heaven flag at his vacation home in 2023 on Wednesday.  

A piece published by the New York Times reported that Alito had the flag up at his vacation home in 2023 and attempted to link Alito to protests and riots at the capitol building on January 6. The flag was originally designed to be flown by US ships that George Washington directly commanded during the Revolutionary War. This comes after a different story where Alito's wife reportedly flew an American flag upside down over an argument with a neighbor.  

AOC jumped on this in an interview with Chirs Hayes and said that "Samuel Alito has identified himself with the same people who raided the Capitol on January 6." She called it a "threat to democracy" that he had flown the flag as a Supreme Court Justice, despite the history of the flag.  

She then called for the Senate to have an "active investigation" into the matter of both the Appeal to Heaven flag and the upside-down US flag as she tried to link the Supreme Court Justice to January 6.  

Senator Dick Durbin chimed in online and posted, "This incident is yet another example of apparent ethical misconduct by a sitting justice, and it adds to the Court’s ongoing ethical crisis." 

"Justice Alito must recuse himself immediately from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection," he added.  

Other Democratic politicians and pundits also chimed in about the flag. Bill Kristol wrote, "Kind of amazing for a Supreme Court Justice to fly an 'Appeal to Heaven' flag, whose spirit is hostile to the constitutional order and the rule of law that the Supreme Court is to uphold." 

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) also mocked Alito for waving it at his vacation home, while posting the NYT article, wrote, "Did another neighbor make Alito’s wife mad? How many MAGA battle flags does Alito need to fly for the Court or the Judicial Conference to see there’s a problem? 
 

Others tried to tie House Speaker Mike Johnson as well to the controversy because he has hung the flag outside his office previously. 

A user said of the flag, "Mike Johnson of course also has an 'Appeal to Heaven' flag outside his office because our entire government is under siege from christofascist republicans."
 
Despite the many people who were voicing opposition against Alito, many did not think that waving the revolutionary-era flag was something worth an investigation over.