Samuel Alito's wife's leaked remarks condemned: "Totally deranged" (2024)

Social media users have criticized Martha-Ann Alito's secretly recorded comments, describing them as "totally deranged."

In an audio recording, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito can be heard saying that since she had to see Pride flags in June, she wanted to respond with a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag or one with the Italian word for shame on it.

Lauren Windsor, a liberal documentary filmmaker, posted the recording on X, formerly Twitter, after posing as a Christian conservative at a dinner reception hosted by the Supreme Court Historical Society on June 3.

Critics have called the clip "horrible" and "vengeance-seeking," while supporters have defended what they see as Martha-Ann Alito's right to expression—saying June is the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Catholic calendar.

The Alitos have faced weeks of controversy over flying an upside-down U.S. flag and an "Appeal to Heaven" flag, both associated with Donald Trump's claim that the 2020 election was rigged. The associate justice has rejected requests for him to recuse himself from cases related to the election and the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, saying "reasonable" people were not questioning his ability to remain impartial.

He also blamed his wife for the upside-down flag. In a letter dated May 29, Samuel Alito wrote: "As I have stated publicly, I had nothing whatsoever to do with the flying of that flag. I was not even aware of the upside-down flag until it was called to my attention. As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days, she refused.

"My wife and I own our Virginia home jointly. She therefore has the legal right to use the property as she sees fit, and there were no additional steps that I could have taken to have the flag taken down more promptly."

In the clip, Martha-Ann Alito can be heard saying, "I want a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag because I have to look across the lagoon at the Pride flag for the next month."

Discussing her husband, she said: "He's like, 'Oh, please don't put up a flag.' I said, 'I won't do it because I'm deferring to you. But when you are free of this nonsense, I'm putting it up, and I'm gonna send them a message every day.' Maybe every week, I'll be changing the flags.

"They'll be all kinds. I made a flag in my head. This is how I satisfy myself. I made a flag. It's white and has yellow and orange flames around it. And in the middle is the word vergogna. Vergogna in Italian means shame—vergogna. V-E-R-G-O-G-N-A. Vergogna. Shame, shame, shame on you."

Elsewhere in the recording, Martha-Ann Alito spoke about "getting even" with the media.

"Look at me. Look at me. I'm German. I'm from Germany. My heritage is German. You come after me, I'm gonna give it back to you," she said. "And there will be a way—it doesn't have to be now—but there will be a way they will know. Don't worry about it. God—you read the Bible. Psalm 27 is my psalm. Mine. Psalm 27, the Lord is my God and my rock. Of whom shall I be afraid? Nobody."

Defending the secret recording, Windsor told Rolling Stone, "I don't consider Martha-Ann a private figure, given that she's married to a Supreme Court justice, and she's a window into his thinking."

Newsweek has contacted the Alito family for comment via the Supreme Court's Public Information Office.

The clip has come under fire on social media. Journalist Mehdi Hasan wrote: "Justice Alito's flag-waving, vengeance-seeking wife sounds totally deranged in this undercover audio recording. Who talks like this? And to a total stranger?"

Scott Dworkin, a co-founder of the Democratic Coalition, wrote: "Martha-Ann Alito caught on undercover audio saying this horrible statement: 'I want a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag because I have to look across the lagoon at the Pride flag for the next month.' Horrible."

Other commenters supported Martha-Ann Alito's comments, with user @hollykam writing: "If one can have a pride flag, the other can have a religious flag. Freedom of speech allows both. It isn't working."

User @beerandtokens added, "The horror of a Christian wanting to wave a Christian flag."

Windsor also secretly recorded Samuel Alito, asking him about the cultural rifts in the country.

Windsor initiated the conversation, saying: "I don't know that we can negotiate with the left in the way that needs to happen for the polarization to end. I think that it's a matter of, like, winning."

The associate justice replied: "I think you're probably right. One side or the other is going to win. I don't know. I mean, there can be a way of working, a way of living together peacefully, but it's difficult, you know, because there are differences on fundamental things that really can't be compromised. They really can't be compromised. So it's not like you are going to split the difference."

"I wish I knew [how to fix the polarization]. I don't know. It's easy to blame the media, but I do blame them because they do nothing but criticize us. And so they have really eroded trust in the court," he continued, adding, "American citizens in general need to work on this to try to heal this polarization because it's very dangerous."

"I don't think it's something we [the Supreme Court] can do," Samuel Alito said. "We have a very defined role, and we need to do what we're supposed to do. But this is a bigger problem. This is way above us."