I’ve called Justice Samuel Alito many things over the years. He’s a two-time malaka of the week and has had his own Adrastos conferred nickname, Sam the Sham, since 2022. None of that is enough. It’s time to be blunt: Justice Alito is a Trumper.

Who but a Trumper would say this about their spouse?

“My wife is fond of flying flags. I am not. She was solely responsible for having flagpoles put up at our residence and our vacation home and has flown a wide variety of flags over the years.”

The only way to describe that quote is cold and condescending. As horrible as Ginni Thomas is, Corrupt Clarence always speaks fondly of his wife in public. In contrast, Sam the Sham threw Martha-Ann under the proverbial bus when he wrote Senators Durbin and Whitehouse that recusal refusal epistle.

Martha-Ann is a piece of work. Her interactions with then neighbor Emily Baden sound like something out of The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Martha-Ann would fit right in with the crazy Jersey ladies, but Sam the Sham would be a poor fit with Joe, Frank, and the rest of the guys. They like to have fun. Sam the Sham’s idea of fun is wife-blaming.

Sam the Sham’s policy views are Trumpy but the Trumpiest thing about him is this use of intimidation against the aforementioned Ms. Baden:

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

 

Then a large black car, part of the Alitos’ security detail, started parking in front of her mother’s house instead of theirs, and Baden understood the perils of being an ordinary citizen going up against one of the most powerful men in the country.”

That’s a mob move. What’s Trumpier than being compared to a mobster?

It gets creepier:

Baden and her husband both say that the security detail’s car showed up in front of her mother’s house again two weeks ago, after the New York Times broke the story about an upside-down American flag hanging on the Alitos’ flagpole in the days before Biden’s inauguration – a symbol associated with the January 6 insurrection that sought to prevent Biden from taking office at all.

 

“I couldn’t say who was in the car because of the tinted glass, and nobody ever said anything. I took it as a general threat,” she said. “The message was, we could do terrible things to you, and nobody would be able to do anything about it. When it comes to justices at the supreme court, they make the laws, but the laws don’t apply to them.”

This incident evokes a phrase from another time: The Arrogance Of Power. It’s the title of a book written by Senator J. William Fulbright, in opposition to the Vietnam War. In that case, the phrase expressed Fulbright’s disappointment that his friend and ally Lyndon Johnson had plunged headlong into an unwinnable war. The stakes are also high in 2024: Sam the Sham Alito declared war on American women in his Dobbs opinion. He’s also likely to vote in favor of Trump’s assertion of absolute immunity. How Trumpy is that?

Back to the Alito’s war with Emily Baden:

“He’s lying about many, many things in that statement,” she claims. Contrary to Alito’s assertions, she alleged, it was not true that she had initiated any confrontation. She said it was also untrue that her lawn signs were directed personally at the justice or his wife.”

Ain’t nothing Trumpier than lying. Sam the Sham is the real deal when it comes to smearing people. It’s hard to imagine past Supremes ordering their security detail to intimidate someone because of a neighborhood dispute.

We’ve all had our share of bad neighbors. But the issues usually involve mundane matters like excessive noise, not a political dispute between a Supreme Court Justice, his unhinged wife, and a neighbor. This is judicial behavior? Only for a justice who’s a Trumper.

I realize that Sam the Sham is going to do whatever the hell he wants, but demanding recusal is weak tea at this point. He should RESIGN because of his persistent arrogance as well as his notoriously sloppy scholarship. He’s not only a terrible human being, he’s a rotten judge with the injudicious habit of whining to the media. How Trumpy is that?

A reminder that we have George W. Bush to blame for Samuel Alito. The GOP’s slide towards authoritarianism began in earnest during the Bush-Cheney administration. Remember their tortured torture defense? They left behind another form of torture: Sam the Sham Alito and feckless Chief Justice John Roberts. Thanks, W.

I’m not even going into the substance of Alito’s shitty jurisprudence. He’s become a Trumper icon because of his arrogant persona, not his work. Trumpism is more of an attitude than an ideology. Sam the Sham has all the Trumpist attributes: arrogance, power lust, an inability to STFU, and a conviction that he alone knows best. In addition to being a Trumper, Justice Alito is a troll, but the two go together like Penn & Teller.

Repeat after me: Justice Alito is a Trumper.

The last word is dedicated to Emily Baden for coming forward to refute Sam the Sham’s lies. Here’s Los Lobos with guest vocalist Levon Helm: