Justice Alito’s Wife Was Offended by the Rainbow Flag

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s wife, Martha-Ann, recently told a woman posing as a conservative supporter that she wanted to fly a Catholic flag at the couple’s Virginia home in response to a Pride flag in her neighborhood.

“You know what I want?” the justice’s wife said to the woman, Lauren Windsor, who secretly recorded the conversation during a black-tie event last week at the Supreme Court. “I want a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag because I have to look across the lagoon at the Pride flag for the next month.”

But Ms. Alito said that after she suggested the Sacred Heart of Jesus flag as a retort to the symbol for L.G.B.T.Q. rights, her husband said, “Oh, please, don’t put up a flag.”

She said that she had agreed, for now, but that she had told him that “when you are free of this nonsense,” “I’m putting it up and I’m going to send them a message every day, maybe every week. I’ll be changing the flags.” 

She added that she would come up with her own flag, which would be white with yellow and orange flames, and read, in Italian, “shame.”

The comments from Ms. Alito were posted online late Monday by Ms. Windsor, who describes herself as a documentary filmmaker and “advocacy journalist.” Ms. Windsor, who has a reputation for approaching conservatives, including former Vice President Mike Pence, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio and Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, posted edited recordings of Ms. Alito, as well as separate edited recordings of Justice Alito and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., on social media.

The segment with Ms. Alito, which is roughly six minutes long, includes a wide-ranging conversation in which the justice’s wife appears to voice frustration with the media and liberals.

Justice Alito did not respond to a request for comment earlier in the day about a secret recording of his conversation with Ms. Windsor, and a court spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a late-evening request for comment on the recording of Ms. Alito.

The New York Times has not heard the full unedited recording and has reviewed only the edited recording posted online. Ms. Windsor declined to send The Times the full recording, which she said ran more than two hours. 

During the conversation, Ms. Alito appeared to express frustration with journalists.

Ms. Windsor offered support, saying, “I’m a huge fan of your husband. And everything that you’re going through. I just want to tell you that like I —.”

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Ms. Alito interrupted, saying, “It’s OK! It’s OK.!”

She added: “It’s OK because if they come back to me, I’ll get them.”

When Ms. Windsor asked who she meant by “them,” Ms. Alito responded, “The media.”

Ms. Windsor then shifted the conversation toward the recent flag controversy that put Ms. Alito in the public spotlight.

The Times first reported that two provocative flags had flown at two of the Alitos’ homes in recent years. In the weeks after the 2020 presidential election, an upside-down American flag flew outside their Virginia house. The inverted flag had become a symbol used by some Trump supporters who falsely claimed that President Biden had stolen the election.

Last summer, a flag called the “Appeal to Heaven” flag flew outside the Alitos’ New Jersey beach house. The flag, which dates back to the Revolutionary War, is now a symbol of support for former President Donald J. Trump, for a religious vein of the “Stop the Steal” campaign, and for an effort to remake the government in Christian terms. 

“But why do you think they’re coming after you?” Ms. Windsor asked Ms. Alito in the recording. Then, using obscenity, Ms. Windsor said that “the whole Appeal to Heaven flag” seemed like nonsense.

“Right, right,” Ms. Alito responded.

Ms. Windsor said, sympathetically, that people are “persecuting you” and “you’re like a convenient stand-in for anybody who’s religious.”

“Look at me, look at me,” Ms. Alito said. “I’m German, from Germany. My heritage is German. You come after me, I’m going to give it back to you.” She did not elaborate.

Abbie VanSickle covers the United States Supreme Court for The Times. She is a lawyer and has an extensive background in investigative reporting. More about Abbie VanSickle