Image Credit: Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States
There's a troubling trend by certain politicians to salt the ground at the U.S. Supreme Court before more significant firearm-related cases can be argued and decided. Politicians are disparaging the justices in an attempt to politicize the Court and delegitimize decisions even before arguments are heard. It's unfolding in the cruelest ways, and it threatens the separation of powers between the three co-equal branches of government – the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches.
It is also a reminder that November's presidential election carries with it added significance for the future of the Judiciary.
Just last week, Chief Justice John Roberts rejected a request by U.S. Senate Democrats to meet to talk about Supreme Court ethics and a ginned-up controversy over Justice Samuel Alito flying flags outside his homes in Alexandria, Va., and Long Island Beach, N.J. The first incident stemmed from a 2021 dispute with a neighbor who personally targeted Justice Alito's wife, Martha-Ann, seemingly as a form of protesting the violence of Jan. 6. Mrs. Alito made the sole decision to fly an inverted flag at their Virginia residence in response to a neighbor's pointed attacks. More manufactured controversy stemmed from Mrs. Alito flying an "Appeal to Heaven" flag at their New Jersey residence in 2023, despite San Francisco's City Hall flying a similar flag, only to quietly take it down last month after the media uproar.
Justice Alito responded to Senate Democrats' demands that he recuse from cases involving Jan. 6 based on these contrived controversies. .....