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Emily Baden stands in her yard in San Francisco. Earlier than shifting to San Francisco, she was neighbors with Supreme Court docket Justice Samuel Alito, who she says was a quiet observer to heated exchanges between her and Alito’s spouse, Martha-Ann Alito, concerning indicators on the Baden household’s entrance yard.
Marissa Leshnov for NPR
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Marissa Leshnov for NPR
A liberal former neighbor of conservative Supreme Court docket Justice Samuel Alito is publicly providing her account of a collection of tense interactions she had with Alito’s spouse, Martha-Ann, across the time of the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol.
The saga started as a dispute over anti-Trump garden indicators and culminated in a profanity-filled confrontation on the road, which Justice Alito witnessed.
“This was one of many craziest issues I’ve ever skilled in my life,” mentioned the neighbor, Emily Baden, in an interview with NPR. “The ability imbalance between these folks and myself is large. Prefer it actually could not get any larger.”
Justice Alito has cited that neighborhood dispute because the context for the upside-down American flag that flew in entrance of his dwelling in Northern Virginia within the days after the Capitol riot.
Sailors have traditionally used the upside-down flag as an emblem of misery. Extra not too long ago, the upside-down American flag additionally grew to become related to the pro-Trump “cease the steal” motion and efforts to maintain the previous president in energy. Some Trump supporters carried upside-down flags on the Jan. 6 riot. Due to that affiliation, Democrats have referred to as for Alito to recuse himself from instances associated to Trump and the rebel.
Alito has rejected these arguments and mentioned his spouse alone — over Justice Alito’s objections — raised the upside-down flag after the argument with Baden.
“My spouse’s causes for flying the flag aren’t related for current functions,” Alito wrote to Democratic members of Congress, “however I notice that she was enormously distressed on the time due, largely, to a really nasty neighborhood dispute during which I had no involvement.”
He mentioned that his spouse was additionally solely accountable for displaying one other flag, generally known as the “Enchantment to Heaven,” on the Alito’s seaside home in New Jersey. That flag dates again to the American Revolution and, in more moderen years, has additionally been embraced by some far-right spiritual conservatives. “My spouse is keen on flying flags,” Alito wrote. “I’m not.”
Supreme Court docket Justice Samuel Alito Jr. (left) and his spouse Martha-Ann Alito, pay their respects on the casket of Reverend Billy Graham on the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Constructing in 2018.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
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Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
Baden informed NPR that Alito’s rationalization for the upside-down flag is “ludicrous” and doesn’t match the timeline of the neighborhood dispute. Baden acknowledges that she referred to as Martha-Ann Alito the “c-word” on the road throughout one encounter, which she says Martha-Ann Alito initiated. However she notes that the incident befell weeks after the upside-down flag was raised in entrance of the Alito residence, in keeping with reporting from the New York Occasions, which broke the story.
The Supreme Court docket didn’t reply to NPR’s request for remark.
A collection of more and more heated encounters
Baden and her husband (then boyfriend) moved in to her mom’s dwelling in northern Virginia in 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic pressured her to cease working as an actor and restaurant server in New York.
Baden describes herself as a “leftist,” however says she initially didn’t assume a lot concerning the Alitos down the road. The Alito home is farther down the cul-de-sac, and never seen from her mom’s entrance yard.
After Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, Baden celebrated and put up a hand-crafted signal within the yard. On one aspect it mentioned “BYE-DON,” and on the opposite “F*** Trump.”
Someday, Baden says, the wind blew the signal down. In response to Baden, Martha-Ann Alito occurred to drive by and thanked Baden for taking the signal down. However Baden had no intention of leaving the signal down.
“I say, ‘I will hold the join. Thanks. Bye.’ Or one thing like that. And that was it,” she says.
After the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, Baden put up a brand new signal stating, “You’re complicit” and “Trump Is A Fascist.”
The next day, Baden says she and her husband have been sitting of their automotive parked in entrance of her mom’s home, when somebody drove up subsequent to them.
Abortion rights protesters reveal exterior Supreme Court docket Justice Alito’s dwelling in Northern Virginia on June 27, 2022.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Photos
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Tasos Katopodis/Getty Photos
“The individual inside simply stares at us, simply glares at us,” Baden says. “And I used to be simply sitting there, like, considering to myself, ‘oh, my God, that is that is Mrs. Alito. That is her.’ And she or he’s stopped there for a time frame that seems like endlessly after which drives off.”
“I texted some mates like, ‘You guys won’t ever imagine what simply occurred. I am so weirded out proper now,’” she says.
A few week or so later, in keeping with the New York Occasions, the upside-down American flag began flying in entrance of the Alitos’ home. Baden says she by no means noticed it.
Then, on Jan. 20, 2021, Joe Biden was set to be inaugurated as president. Baden says she and her husband determined to drive by the Alito dwelling out of curiosity.
“I do not know if I anticipated to see something or what I anticipated to see,” she says.
Baden says Martha Ann-Alito occurred to be in entrance of the home.
“And she or he sees us and runs out to the road and she or he’s yelling one thing and we do not hear it,” Baden says. “Our home windows are up and we’re in movement. So we do not hear what she’s yelling.”
The road is a cul-de-sac, which meant Baden and her husband needed to flip round and cross by the Alito dwelling a second time.
“And we see in our rearview mirror that she, like, spits at our automotive, or it seems like she spat at our automotive after which we simply bought the hell out of there,” Baden says. In Baden’s account, Alito was not shut sufficient to the automotive to make any contact.
The ultimate – and most heated – encounter between Baden and the Alitos befell on Feb. 15, 2021.
“My husband and I are simply within the driveway. We’re getting the trash cans. After which the Alitos” – each Justice Alito and Martha-Ann Alito – “stroll up, they presumably have been simply taking a stroll.”
Baden says she and her husband have been startled to see them.
“After which then Mrs. Alito says one thing like, ‘nicely, nicely, nicely, if it is not the the f****** fascists, Emily and my husband’s identify and my mother’s identify, you are – you are a f****** fascist.’”
Baden says she was shocked to listen to Martha-Ann Alito use every of their full names. Baden had by no means launched herself by identify, and she or he and her husband weren’t but married and didn’t share a final identify.
When Baden lived in Northern Virginia, she had collection of tense interactions she had with Alito’s spouse, Martha-Ann, across the time of the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol.
Marissa Leshnov for NPR
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Marissa Leshnov for NPR
“And that was once I spoke again,” Baden says. “I simply mentioned, like, ‘How dare you behave this manner? You characterize the best court docket within the land. What are you doing? I am a stranger to you. That is due to my signal? That is insane.’”
Baden acknowledges that she referred to as Martha-Ann Alito the “c-word.”
Alito described using “foul language” in his letter, and the “vilest epithet that may be addressed to a girl.”
Baden informed NPR she now regrets utilizing the phrase.
“They’re selecting to harass and intimidate us after we are nothing to them. We’re simply random folks,” Baden says. “So that might have been the message that I needed to convey. And, you already know, and if a curse phrase cheapened that one way or the other, then, yeah, I might say that I regretted saying it.”
Baden says Justice Alito remained silent all through the complete encounter. As Baden yelled, the Alitos walked away.
“Mr. Alito is strolling away a lot faster,” she remembered. “he actually bought out of there.”
Quickly after, Baden’s husband referred to as the police and recorded the decision. She shared the recording with NPR. The officer who answered informed them that there was nothing he might do after the actual fact, however mentioned that he would name the Alitos’ protecting element.
He informed Baden’s husband to name the police once more if there was one other incident. However Baden says that was the final time that the Alitos and Baden encountered one another.
“My spouse is a personal citizen, and she or he possesses the identical First Modification rights as each different American,” Alito wrote in his letter to Congress. “She makes her personal selections, and I’ve at all times revered her proper to take action.”
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