Another one. Is that a third home . Timeshare . Do we need to know about it . A timeshare, a third right wing flag . We will see. Checked the basements, check the attics. Thank you, my friend. This is an image from just outside the capital on january 6th. You can see a lot of trump 2020 flags, but these in the white flag there, on the left of your screen with the image of a pine tree on it. Do you see it . If you look closely, it says Appeal To Heaven on the top. Here is an image of another one of those flags being flown on january 6th, and here is another one. Multiple rioters waived that Appeal To Heaven flag as they descended on the capital that day. The flag itself dates back to the american revolution, but like the dentist and flag, also known as the dont tread on me flag, its Revolutionary War History has been reviewed by its contemporary significance. This has become the new banner for the christian fundamentalist wing of trumps stopped the steel movement, and that is thanks to this guy, dutch sheets. Yes. I know that sounds like the name of a linens company in the netherlands, but it is actually a person. Dutch sheets is a prominent Evangelical Minister on the american right. Here is how he was described as Pbs News Hour earlier this year. Dutch sheets is perhaps the most ardent trump supporter in the new apostolic reparation. He is the one who may have done the most of any christian leader in the United States to mobilize folks to try to overturn the 2020 election, and to make sure to attend january 6th. Over the last 10 years, the Appeal To Heaven flag has been popularized by dutch sheets. Thats dutch sheets sees the flag as a resolution. If you look closely at january 6th, you will see dozens of Appeal To Heaven flag. It may have a long history, but in the long context, it has a very specific meaning. And dutch sheets has presented this Appeal To Heaven flag to a number of conservatives over the years, he gave one to former alaska governor, sarah palin. He wrapped a conservative candidate for indiana governor in the flag earlier this year. But even if sheets isnt the one gifting that compass flag is very much in circulation. The speaker of the house Mike Johnston has displayed one of those flags outside of his congressional office. In october 2020, donald trump attended a mega Church Service in las vegas, where he was presented with his own Appeal To Heaven flag. It has flown somewhat under the radar for a lot of people, and maybe most people. But, in the last decade, the Appeal To Heaven flag has come to be associated with the Christian Nationalist Movement here in america, and since november of 2020, it has come to be associated with the efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which is what makes this all social so shocking. Here is the New York Times headline from just a few hours ago. Another provocative flag was flown at another alito home. Photographs obtained by the times on four separate dates show that the Appeal To Heaven flag was flown over the new jersey Vacation Home of Supreme CourtJustice Samuel alito in the summer of 2023. This was not done surreptitiously. You can see it on google street view. Here is the picture of the house that was taken last august. A Supreme Court justice proudly flying the flag of christian fundamentalists and government insurrectionist in front of his home, in daylight, for everyone to see, even google. And it is not the first time five days ago, the New York Times discover that another symbol of the january 6th movement, an upside down american flag, flew over Justice Alitos home days after the capital insurrection. Now, Justice Alito blamed the incident on his wife, saying she ran the flag of the pole during a dispute with their neighbors, which is decidedly not a normal thing. But, did anyone really expect that there were more flags to come . How many houses do the alitos have . For the record, Justice Alito has not yet given an explanation as to why another Flag Associated with the insurrectionist flying over yet another one of his homes. And it should be noted that at the time this Appeal To Heaven flag was flying over the justices home, the Supreme Court was actively considering cases involving january 6th defendants. In august of 2023, several january 6th defendants had informed the Supreme Court of their intention to challenge the constitutionality of a federal crime they had been charged with, obstruction of an official proceeding. It is a crime that donald trump has also been charged with by the special counsels office, and when that case finally came before the court for oral arguments, this was the tenor of Justice Alitos questions. So, we have had a number of protests in the courtroom. Lets say that today, five people get up one after the other, and they shout either, keep the january 6th insurrectionists in jail, or free the january 6th patriots. And as a result of this, our Police Officers have to remove them forcibly from the courtroom. Would that be a violation . I think it is in a fundamentally different posture than if they had stormed into the courtroom, of her on the Supreme Court police, require the justices and other participants to flee for their safety and done so with earlier evidence. Absolutely. What happened on january 6th was very, very serious and i am not equating this with that. What happened on january 6th was very, very serious. So says the man who had a Flag Associated with that insurrection flying over at least two of his properties. The New York Times reports that when they visited Justice AlitosVacation House on wednesday of this week, the flagpole was bare. So, the flag was now gone, but the work of this court continues. Joining me now is michelle goldberg, New York TimesOpinion Columnist and author of Kingdom Coming the rise of christian nationalism. Also, joseph stearns, late night magazine, covering the courts and the law. Thank you, both, for being here. Michelle, what was your reaction when you saw this headline . On the one hand, completely predictable. Justice alito is exactly the person that a lot of us thought he was. Fly another flag, right . My colleague wrote this column about how he is a true believer. He is not a fox news producer, he is a fox news watcher. He has kind of very similar opinions, i think, to a lot of other cliquish men in their 70s. He just happens to have lifetime, unaccountable power over the constitution of the United States, and has been extremely contemptuous of any efforts not just to rain in that power, but to enact a code of ethics on the Supreme Court. It is worth pointing out that the Supreme Court just you know, Under Pressure just adopted a code of ethics that said justices should recuse themselves i dont know if i will get the language exactly right but i think when it can be reasonably inferred, that when there might be reasonable doubts about their impartiality, something to that effect. How can anyone reasonably believe that Justice Alito is remotely capable of being impartial around a cause that he cannot resist he feels so strongly about, that he cannot restrain himself from flying banners over multiple properties . You know, mark, Justice Alitos wife was blamed for the first flag incident. I thought it was very telling that the justice had nothing to say to the New York Times when asked for comment. What is your immediate assessment of how damaging this is to the court . Well, i think the justice was caught redhanded on this one. It is not going to be able to shove off blame to his wife. My Immediate Reaction is that this is, of course, its terrible look for Justice Alito, a terrible look for the Supreme Court on the eve of yet another day when the justices will be handing down opinions. Tomorrow morning at 10 00 a. M. , we will be getting major opinions in cases that could involve things like abortion and gun control, and alito may well be providing the deciding vote in some of those cases, and the nation will now know that the guy who tipped the scales one way or the other in some of those cases also flew a flag intimately associated with the insurrection at his beach house. But, i just want to say, i feel like what is so damning here is that Justice Alito has clearly broken this sort of implicit contract that the Supreme Court makes with the United States of america and its citizenry. You know, the Supreme Court justices are supposed to act with dignity and honor, and impartiality. Not just because they derive their legitimacy from all of that, from their black robes, the simple, black robes that show they are just normal judges dispensing justice but, because when they go badly awry, we cannot do anything about it. We cant vote them anything out of office. We cant recall them. There is virtually nothing that the American People can do about a justice who has gone as lawless and rogue as samuel alito evidently has. So, it almost sort of it can be compared to the british monarchy. The reason that it still exists in its current form is because Queen Elizabeth was able to preserve this image of integrity and decency for so long and the public respected it. Alito is shattering those efforts by the rest of the Supreme Court, or some of the rest of the Supreme Court. It is not going to lead to a good place for them, because again that is really the only place they drive their power from. They dont have an army to drive their decisions. When they lose respect, they lose authority. That is such a good point, mark. It almost feels like he is doing it because he can, because he knows that there is no accountability. Right. It is owning the libs in the most spectacular fashion. Right. It is like, who is going to stop me . The two things that mark said, he talked about the implicit bargain that the Supreme Court has with the United States. Or, pardon me, with the American People. But, part of trumpism has always been to disregard those implicit bargains, all of those norms. It has always been, who is going to stop me . And so, Justice Alito clearly could care less about whether his exercise of power is seen as legitimate in the eyes of the people who disagree with him, and i think that is where it ties in, Justice Alito as a catholic, the new apostolic reparation is a kind of species of pentecostalism. But, in as much as they see a right to rule for certain citizens with certain beliefs and a lesser sort of citizenship for everyone else, i think its very much fits in with this. Who cares if you think i am fair, or just, or my authority as well exercise . I have it, you dont. Not even trying to cloak it in some other broader notion of jurisprudence. Mark, the assumption at this current hour is that not much can be done about this. We know that Chuck Schumer i believe this was earlier today before this New York Times story broke suggested that he is discussing where to go from here with senator durbin, who is the chair of the Senate Judiciary committee. But practically speaking, all roads lead to john roberts, is anything meaningful going to be done . Or, do you think congress can enact something . I say that with an eye roll, not intentionally, but reflexively. I know some House Democrats are saying that if they take back a majority, they will hold hearings on this, they will investigate. I think that is a positive step for anyone who wants accountability here. I think it is very unfortunate when senators on the democratic side say, well, we wont really be doing anything about this because we dont have any meaningful options. They will ignore our subpoenas, they will laugh in our faces. That only feeds into this arrogant that Justice Alito is riding high on right now, this sense, as michelle noted, that he is above everything, and that he is able to flaunt it, it is in our faces. You know, Justice Alito is very cloistered. He doesnt have anyone in his circle to puncture this sense that he is above all public criticism, and equal to trump in the sense that no one can stop him because he has this sort of unlimited power. And i think that if democrats dont even bother to try to puncture that sense of community that he has, if democrats just give up and say, well, we tried a few subpoenas, they ignored them, what can we do now . That is going to get alito even further to the right, it will push them to new extremes, or at least allow him to reach those extremes within his bubble, and that is going to come out in his decisions. We are watching his decisions become increasingly unhinged. His questions from the bench are deranged at this point. His opinions are infused with Radical Christian nationalism. If all democrats can muster in response to that is a shrug, then he will say, i guess no one is going to stop me, and he will continue pulling the law in that very dark and dangerous direction. So well said, and also the danger of a judge acting with impunity on the eve of potentially instilling in the next president , potentially donald trump, absolute immunity. I mean, the idea of a Representative Democracy appearing to dissolve before our very eyes, and mark brings up, and you bring up the infusion of christian nationalism. When you look at what is happening in congress, you look at what is happening in the legislative branch, vis vis the legislative party, what is happening in the judicial branch, two of the three branches of our government have become hotbeds of christian fundamentalism. Right, and i think the same thing will follow the Executive Branch if donald trump is re elected, because he has plans to bring in a whole entourage of people. I mean, donald trump is not a practicing christian, although he might be a christian nationalist in terms of his beliefs and who should be privileged in our society. But, he has plans to remake or, the people around him have plans to remake the entire Executive Branch. And this is just sort of a tiny example, a symbolic example of what that looks like. It is sort of just completely unaccountable, you know . Maybe we had norms and standards before, but our new army is going to enforce them. You know, mark, in the context of the broader history of the court, this has been the project of the right wing since ronald reagan. Yes. And what is so astounding and to some degree, appalling, the way that in which it is in full flower 40 years later, a dedicated effort to reverse social progress, dissolve the barrier between turk church and state, and see a rightwing takeover of the judiciary, it almost seems complete on a night like this. Absolutely. And i think the great lesson that the Reagan Administration imparted on some of its younger foot soldiers, like Mitch Mcconnell who are now leading the Republican Party is, if you capture the courts, you dont even have to win elections. You know, passing laws through democracy is really unwieldy. It takes forever. It is expensive. Those laws can be refueled, those lawmakers can be voted out. But, when a judge does a, well, if you cant get that overturned on appeal because the Supreme Court has been captured, as well, that is just the Law Of The Land and it might stay that way for decades. This is, indeed, a project, and it does feel like tonight like the project has succeeded. But i will say, for many decades, the conservative Legal Movement fills they were failing. It took them nearly 50 years to overturn roe. A lot of progressives might be dispirited today, but if they arent playing the long game, then they really arent playing to win at all. Michelle goldberg, mark joseph stern, thank you for joining me on this unbel