WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� on Thursday declined an invitation to meet with Democratic senators to talk about ethics and the controversy over flags that flew outside homes owned by Justice Samuel Alito.
Roberts' response came in a letter to the senators a day after Alito separately wrote them and House members to himself from major Supreme Court cases involving former President Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 rioters because of the flags, which are like those carried by rioters at the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., a member of the Judiciary panel, had written Roberts a week ago to ask for the meeting and that Roberts take steps to ensure that Alito recuses himself from concerning the Jan. 6 attack or the Republican former president's attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
鈥淚 must respectfully decline your request for a meeting,鈥� Roberts wrote.
Justices decide for themselves when to step aside from cases, Roberts noted. Alito said he concluded nothing about the flags, both of which he said were flown by his wife outside their homes in Virginia and New Jersey, required his recusal.
Last year, Roberts at a Judiciary Committee hearing on Supreme Court ethics, and he made mention of that Thursday in saying that chief justices only rarely have met with lawmakers.
鈥淢oreover, the format proposed 鈥� a meeting with leaders only of one party who have expressed an interest in matters currently pending before the court 鈥� simply underscores that participating in such a meeting would be inadvisable,鈥� he wrote.
Both Alito and an another conservative justice, Clarence Thomas, have rejected calls to recuse themselves from cases related to the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Thomas' wife, Ginni, supported efforts to overturn the election results.
is at its lowest point in at least 50 years.
The justices are considering two major cases related to the Capitol attack, including charges faced by the rioters and whether Trump has immunity from prosecution on election interference charges.
The New York Times reported that was seen at Alito鈥檚 home in Alexandria, Virginia, less than two weeks after the attack on the Capitol. The paper also reported that was flown outside of the justice鈥檚 beach home in New Jersey last summer. Both flags were carried by rioters who violently stormed the Capitol in January 2021 echoing Trump鈥檚 false claims of election fraud.
Alito has said the inverted American flag was flown by his wife amid a dispute with neighbors and he had no part in it. He said she also flew the 鈥淎ppeal to Heaven鈥� flag but was unaware of its ties to the Capitol rioters.
Judicial ethics codes focus on the need for judges to be independent, avoiding political statements or opinions on matters they could be called on to decide. The Supreme Court had long gone without its own , but it adopted one in November 2023 in the face of sustained criticism over to some justices.
The code lacks a means of enforcement, though, and the Judiciary panel last year that would set stricter standards. But Republicans have been staunchly opposed to any efforts to tell the court what to do.
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Mark Sherman, The Associated Press
