Neighbors say Alitos used security detail car to intimidate them after sign dispute | Samuel Alito

Neighbors of Samuel Alito and his wife described how a disagreement over political lawn signs put up after the 2020 presidential election quickly turned into “unintended behavior toward a complete stranger” by the Supreme Court justice’s wife.

Emily Baden says she never intended to pick a fight with Alito and his wife Martha-Anne, her powerful neighbors who live on the same suburban cul-de-sac as her mother outside of Washington.

Then a big black car, part of the Alit family’s security, started parking in front of her mother’s house instead of theirs, and Baden realized the danger of being an ordinary citizen going up against one of the most powerful men in the land.

The two sides disagree on much, but Biden, a staunch liberal, and Martha-Ann Alito, a staunch conservative, agree that they began exchanging words in late 2020, nearly two months after Joe Biden’s election victory over Donald Trump. Soon after, according to Baden, the Alit security guard began parking a car right in front of her mother’s house—a few houses down from their usual spots, either directly in front of Alit or across the street from them.

“It happened a few times,” Baden recalls now. “I took that as a direct threat.”

Both Baden and her husband say the patrol car reappeared outside her mother’s house two weeks ago after the New York Times broke the story of an upside-down American flag hung on the flag pole of the Alitos family in the days leading up to Biden’s inauguration — a symbol associated with the Jan. 6 uprising that sought to prevent Biden from ever taking office.

By this time, Baden was no longer living with his mother – she is now a mother herself and lives on the west coast. Neither she nor her mother were mentioned by name in the original Times story. Still, she found the message it sent troubling.

“I couldn’t tell who was in the car because of the tinted glass and nobody said anything. I took it as a general threat,” she said. “The message was that we can do terrible things to you and nobody will be able to do anything about it. When it comes to Supreme Court Justices, they make the laws, but the laws don’t apply to them.

Baden’s husband, who did not want to be identified by name, said he also remembers a large black security SUV parking outside their house, most memorably after Martha-Ann Alito confronted the couple in February 2021. and Baden let the profanity fly at the judge’s wife.

“Immediately after that, a security car moved in front of our house and stayed for the rest of the night,” he recalled.

The Allitt family did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.

Baden is an unusual witness to the Alito flag controversy and the furore it caused because she never saw the upside-down flag flying outside Alito’s house and hadn’t heard of it until the story hit the headlines two weeks ago.

When the Times first contacted her, she said she did not want to be part of any story because she had nothing to add. That changed when Alito issued a statement saying his wife briefly hung the flag in response to the neighbor’s use of “objectionable and personally offensive language on yard signs.”

Baden realized it was a reference to her. This both angered and frightened her.

“He lies about many, many things in that statement,” she claimed. Contrary to Alito’s claims, she argued that it was not true that she initiated any confrontation. She also said it was false that her lawn signs were directed at Justice or his wife personally.

According to Baden’s version of events, Martha-Ann Alito first approached her to complain about a homemade cardboard sign that said “Bye Don” on one side and “Fuck Trump” on the other – sentiments found on many similar signs in their neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginiaas well as in the rest of the country.

Alito took further offense after Jan. 6, when Baden held up signs that read “Trump is a fascist” and “You are complicit” — the latter intended, Baden says, as a condemnation of all Trump supporters, not as a message to Alito. who did not have a direct view of it from their house.

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The next day, according to Baden, Martha-Ann Alito pulled up in front of their house and glared at her and her partner (now her husband). Security began parking outside the house around the same time, and the argument continued for more than a month, culminating in the swearing incident in mid-February and a police report the Badens filed soon after.

“This was reckless behavior toward a complete stranger who had done nothing but put up a yard sign,” Baden charged. “I was really scared of what they could do.”

That fear also made her hesitant to agree to be named publicly. She knows how quickly people can be vilified when they get involved in a high-profile political controversy, and has thought about Anita Hillwho unsuccessfully tried to prevent Clarence Thomas from being appointed to the Supreme Court in the early 1990s, and Christine Blazey Fordwho testified against Brett Kavanaugh during his 2018 confirmation hearings, also to no avail.

“I was scared for myself, for my mom, for my family, for anyone who shares my last name,” Baden said.

Then the news broke about a second flag associated with the Stop Theft movement, flew into Alito’s second home, and she felt she had no choice but to speak up.

“That other flag sealed the deal for me,” she said. “I thought that if I didn’t use my name, I wouldn’t be true to myself and my beliefs for the rest of my life. I believe in resisting fascism. My grandfather fought in the Second World War … he was a man who literally fought against fascism.”

Her view of Alito was further colored by the fact that he wrote the majority opinion in 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health — the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutional right to abortion. She happened to be in Virginia when the news broke, participating in street protests outside the Alitos’ home, at which point her signs (and almost everyone else’s) were indeed personally aimed at justice.

Now she feels compelled to add her voice to the growing calls for Alito withdraws from Trump-related cases before the Supreme Court and is ready to testify before Congress, as Hill and Blazey Ford did before her.

“This story is not about me. I did nothing but put a sign in my front yard,” she said. “The story is that one of the most powerful men in the country has shown allegiance to an insurgency… I am appalled by this behavior and want to see at least some accountability.

“If I come forward, it is to encourage other people to resist. I want to encourage people and tell them that they have the power. I really shudder to think how close we were to a coup and Christian fascists taking over our country. [But] this is still a democracy.”