House Democrat calls for censure of supreme court justice Alito over upside-down flag at his home – live

Good morning, US politics blog readers. It has been nearly a week since the New York Times broke the news that a flag associated with Donald Trump’s baseless fraud claims about the 2020 election flew outside the house of the conservative supreme court justice Samuel Alito, and Democrats appear to be gearing up to respond. Congressman Steve Cohen has proposed censuring Alito, while yesterday Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s Democratic leader, said flying the flag “casts some doubt on [his] impartiality”, and added he would be looking for ways to respond. Last year, Democrats convened the Senate judiciary committee to try to build support for legislation requiring the court to impose an enforceable code of ethics following earlier reports of ties between conservative justices and wealthy parties with interests before the court. But that legislation went nowhere in the face of Republican opposition, and there is no sign of that calculus changing today. Meanwhile, the conservative-dominated court is considering cases whose outcomes could weigh on the November presidential election, including Trump’s bid for immunity from charges related to his attempt to stop Joe Biden from taking office. We’ll let you know if Democrats elaborate on their next steps today.