The city of San Francisco has removed the Revolutionary War-era “Appeal to Heaven” flag featuring a pine tree following the controversy with Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
“City parks officials quietly took down the Civic Center ‘Appeal to Heaven’ flag over the weekend, saying a statement to the Chronicle that although it originally signified the ‘quest for American independence,’ it has ‘since been adopted by a different group — one that doesn’t represent the city’s values,'” noted the San Francisco Chronicle.
Associate Justice Samuel Alito sits during a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington on April 23, 2021. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
As Breitbart News reported recently, Democrats have been calling for Alito to recuse himself in the case against former President Donald Trump after images surfaced of an “Appeal to Heaven” flag waving over his beach house:
Unable to expand the court with more liberal justices, Democrats are casting doubt on Justice Alito’s ability to remain impartial after the New York Times published two stories showing an upside-down American flag and an Appeal to Heaven flag displayed in Alito’s front yard. The pressure campaign is the latest from left-leaning media outlets and Democrats, who have also targeted conservative Justice Clarence Thomas and similarly demanded his recusal from politically expedient cases.
“The left claims to uphold norms but violates them by inventing recusal standards to pressure and delegitimize the court. The goal is power, not ethics,” Mark Paoletta, a senior fellow at Center for Renewing America and a top lawyer for the Trump White House, wrote in a rebuttal op-ed in the Wall Street Journal published Wednesday.
The first story from the Times stirred outrage over an upside-down American flag displayed outside of Alito’s Virginia home in January of 2021 — historically, the American flag is flown upside-down to show a signal of “dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property,” according to U.S. flag code.
The Appeal to Heaven flag was one of the 18 original flags raised 1964 on Flag Day in San Francisco. It was originally flown from George Washington’s ships during the Revolutionary War and has always held a place of historical significance. However, the flag has since become controversial due to its usage by some segments of the political right.
The Tree Flag (or Appeal to Heaven Flag) was one of the flags used during the American Revolution. (Lucian Perkins /for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“It’s among several images appropriated by conservative movements, and appeared conspicuously in riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, carried by people seeking to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election,” said the Chronicle.
Justice Samuel Alito said that his wife, Martha Ann, flew the flag after a feud with a neighbor using obscenities on a political sign.
“I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag,” Justice Alito said in an emailed statement to the Times. “It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”
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