Supreme Court Justice Alito should recuse himself for 'Stop the Steal' flag stunt
Why Supreme Court Judges should be treated like jurors, depending on the case
Both times that I was called in for jury duty, I was not one of the jurors who was dismissed immediately. I expected to be, partially because of my name (you can kinda assume which one is me in a room full of white, Asian and Hispanic juror hopefuls). And Corporate America has had a reputation for weeding out anyone with an “urban” name. (In all fairness, my name has worked for me. The pronunciation and spelling constantly makes hiring managers think I speak French. Meanwhile, all I know is “Parlez-vous français?”)
Oui, oui to juror vetting
Interestingly, my background is what apparently caught attorneys’ attention. At the time that I was a juror (and a backup juror a second time), I had never been an Election Judge nor was I regularly freelancing for law firms. I did, however, have six years of experience* working for three mainstream newsrooms and freelancing for a fourth one. And anyone who has ever been vetted as a potential juror has to talk about their professional background.
During juror vetting, when I mentioned my employment with the third newspaper, the judge’s eyebrows raised. With (weird) glee, he said, “Are you going to write an article about us?”
I don’t know why he thought that was hysterical, but he and a couple other people in the courtroom laughed.
What I wanted to say was, “Focus on the case and not getting PR for yourself.”
What I said aloud to stay out of contempt: “No.”
(Writer’s note: Technically, I lied. I never wrote about either judge until today, but I did write about my experience as a juror two years later after seeing P&G’s “Talk About Bias” campaign. I’m still annoyed about how some jurors got away with being so startlingly biased once the trial was over.)
Recommended Read: “The trial that I recalled from #TalkAboutBias ~ Why I’ll never complain about jury duty notices”
Although I actually wanted to serve on a jury both times, I observed a number of people try everything under the sun to not serve. In trial one, one guy went on and on about how he had to vote “not guilty” for someone he knew was absolutely guilty but the principles of law said he wasn’t.
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To my astonishment, the judge decided to keep him on the jury. I suspect it was because he thought the guy was trying to figure out a way to skip jury duty. Or, maybe it was because the guy knew how to focus on evidence, not personal opinions. That didn’t stop the next potential juror from trying to escape. And on it went. Excuse after excuse. Some stayed. Some left.
While comical at times, the one thing I agree with during jury duty, especially the vetting of Trump’s current Stormy Daniels hush money trial, is finding jurors who believe they can have an unbiased opinion. I already learned the hard way that jurors will lie and do an amazing job of covering up the lie until the verdict is read. But all the court system can do is ask jurors to be honest.
Au revoir to Alito
Transparency is also a reason I understand why attorneys and judges should recuse themselves if there is a conflict of interest and they know they’re biased. And Justice Samuel Alito definitely has a conflict of interest by hanging an upside-down American flag at his home after the 2020 presidential election.
Not only did he throw his wife under the bus — and if she’s the one who did it, she definitely put her husband’s job in jeopardy, which makes it double stupid considering the ginormous role he plays in judicial decisions — but this lame excuse about a neighbor isn’t even slightly convincing.
But let’s say both are true: The wife hung an upside down American flag in response to an anti-Trump neighbor more than a week after the Jan. 6, 2021. To even allow that to happen in your own home, how can Justice Alito possibly be fair in deciding any 2020-election-related case?
And then he did it again.
Both of these times can’t be “accidents” or blamed on someone else. Alito needs to recuse himself pronto from the presidential immunity ruling. And it shouldn’t take a bunch of excuses for anyone with a working brain and ears to figure out why he has no business weighing in on Trump’s behavior after the last election.
* In total, I have 19 years of experience in journalism but other publications were onetime jobs and/or focused on features copy such as business and real estate news.
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