"Whether Alito was participating in the boycott matters, moreover, for one of the several reasons it matters why there was an upside-down American flag flying at his house on Jan. 17, 2021...."

"...as The New York Times reported earlier this week, and what he knew about that.... Participating in a boycott is undeniably a political statement. And there are pending cases for which participation in an anti-trans beer boycott could be seen as his having a finger on the scale of justice on the side of the anti-trans advocates supporting — and in some cases, defending — these laws such that recusal could be required...."

Writes Chris Geidner, in "Exclusive: Justice Alito sold Bud Light stock amidst anti-trans boycott effort/Alito did not respond to questions about the sale, but its timing raises fair questions — particularly in light of other recent ethical questions" (Law Dork).

Why would selling the stock reveal an anti-trans bias? If anything, it reflects a belief that the stock will go down because other people are biased. To participate in the boycott would be to decline to continue to buy Bud Light beer. There's no evidence that Alito was a Bud Light consumer. I googled Does Alito drink beer and I found this 2006 article in the Princeton Alumni Weekly, "A Tiger on the Court: Sam Alito ’72 at Princeton":

“We didn’t drink much, by the standards of Prospect Street,” [said Ken Burns ’72, who roomed with Alito in Joline Hall during their senior year], though in an affectation that might have earned him hoots of derision in down-to-earth Hamilton Township, Alito apparently had somewhat sophisticated (for an undergraduate) tastes in alcohol, shunning beer in favor of an occasional Scotch, sherry, or whiskey sour. Musical tastes in their dorm room ran heavily toward classical. On weekends, Alito often would go home; friends say he regularly attended Mass. For relaxation, Burns says, “we talked with each other.”

If he shunned beer as an undergraduate, I'm going to assume he's not drinking beer 50 years later, and if he is drinking beer, it's surely not Bud Light. 

As for that flag — Law Dork is piling on, digging up the Bud Light non-boycott, because the NYT started the attack on Alito with its flag story — what can I say? There's so much done with flags these days. Rainbow flags and the confusing additional stripes. Ukrainian and Palestinian flags. The Juneteenth flag (remember that one?). And all the variations on the American flag — different colors, extra stripes, stars replaced with corporate logos. People screw around with it but also honor and revere it. Trump seems to have invented the idea of hugging it.

But there's the old thing of putting it upside down. I remember circa 1970, back when we often sent letters through the mail, we'd put the American flag stamp on upside down to express opposition to the Vietnam war. And I remember the upside down flag in the Wisconsin protests of 2011. Here's a photograph I took:

 

At the time, I said: "I don't know who put the flag like that, and I don't think most of those people posing around it realized they were part of a tableau of disrespect."

The very first commenter, MisterBuddwing, said: "Well, inasmuch as an upside-down Stars and Stripes is traditionally regarded as a distress signal, one could argue that the display is not patently disrespectful."

And Dose of Sanity said: "Unless, of course, Althouse, it was displayed in a fashion to make a political statement. An upside down flag is meant to show distress. It is NOT a sign of disrespect." 

I resisted: "No. I assume it's a political statement -- a statement of disrespect for the United States." And then, after reading some things Google turned up, I said: "I read some of those articles. This isn't a ship in distress. It's an appropriation of our national symbol to make a political statement. I'm very familiar with this from the 1960s."

The Wisconsin protesters, you may remember, were attempting to stop the duly elected legislature from enacting legislation. This display took place just as "In a last-ditch effort to stop the passage of Gov. Scott Walker's controversial budget repair bill, all 14 Senate Democrats staged a walk-out Thursday..." That resistance to the outcome of the election was presented, by the protesters, as a demonstration of democracy. The oft-chanted chant was "This is what democracy looks like."

What the Alito household was attempting to express with the upside down flag on their personal flagpole, I do not know, but as Adam said to God, The woman made me do it.

***

I like this image from the Princeton article (which originally appeared in the Nassau Herald in 1972):