Emily Barden stands in her backyard in San Francisco. Before moving to San Francisco, she was a neighbor of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, whom she said was her and Alito’s wife, Martha-Ann Alito’s Alito, a quiet observer of the heated dispute over the Baden family’s front yard sign.
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A liberal former neighbor of conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is speaking out about her relationship with Alito’s wife, Martha-Ann, during the 2020 presidential election and the January 6, 2021, attacks. (Martha-Ann) A series of tense interactions.
The saga began with a dispute over anti-Trump lawn signs and ended in a profanity-filled confrontation in the streets, which Justice Alito witnessed firsthand.
“This is one of the craziest things I’ve ever experienced in my life,” neighbor Emily Barden told NPR. “The power imbalance between these guys and me is huge. Like it really can’t get any bigger.
Judge Alito used the neighborhood dispute as a backdrop for flying an inverted American flag in front of his home in northern Virginia in the days after the Capitol riot.
Historically, sailors have used inverted flags as a symbol of distress. More recently, the inverted American flag has also been associated with support for Trump’s “Stop the Steal” movement and efforts to keep the former president in power. Some Trump supporters carried upside-down flags during the Jan. 6 riot. Because of that connection, Democrats asked Alito to recuse himself from cases related to Trump and the insurrection.
Alito dismissed those arguments and said his wife raised the inversion flag on her own, over Judge Alito’s objections, after a dispute with Barden.
“My wife’s reasons for flying the flag have nothing to do with the present purpose, but I note that she was in great distress, in large part due to a very upsetting incident,” Alito wrote to congressional Democrats. Annoying neighborhood disputes.
He said his wife was also solely responsible for displaying another flag called “Calling to Heaven” at their beach house in Alito, New Jersey. The flag, which dates back to the American Revolution, has also gained support from some far-right religious conservatives in recent years. “My wife loves flying the flag,” Alito wrote. “I’m not.”
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr. (left) and his wife Martha Ann Alito pay tribute to the Rev. Billy Graham’s casket in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in 2018.
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Baden told NPR that Alito’s explanation for the flag inversion was “ridiculous” and inconsistent with the timeline of the neighborhood dispute. Baden admitted that she called Martha Ann Alito the “c-word” on the street during a chance encounter, which she said was initiated by Martha Ann Alito. But she noted that the incident occurred weeks ago back According to the New York Times, an upside-down flag was raised in front of Alito’s residence.
The Supreme Court did not respond to NPR’s request for comment.
A series of increasingly intense encounters
Baden and her husband (then-boyfriend) moved into her mother’s northern Virginia home in 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced her to stop working as an actress and restaurant server in New York.
Baden describes herself as “leftist” but said she didn’t initially think much of the Alitos on the street. Alito’s house was further down a cul-de-sac and not visible from her mother’s front yard.
After Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, Baden celebrated and erected a handmade sign in his yard. One side says “Goodbye” and the other says “F*** Trump.”
One day, Baden said, the wind blew the sign over. According to Baden, Martha-Ann Alito happened to drive by and she thanked Baden for taking down the sign. But Baden had no intention of leaving the brand behind.
“I said, ‘I’m going to keep the brand. Thank you. Goodbye. Or something like that. That’s it,'” she said.
After the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, Baden erected a new sign that read “You are complicit” and “Trump is a fascist.”
The next day, Baden said she and her husband were sitting in a car parked in front of her mother’s house when someone drove up next to them.
Abortion rights protesters demonstrate outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Alito in northern Virginia on June 27, 2022.
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“The people inside were just staring at us, just glaring at us,” Baden said. “I just sat there and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s Mrs. Alito. That’s her. She was parked there for what felt like forever, and then she drove off.
“I texted some friends and said, ‘You’re never going to believe what just happened. I’m so weird right now,'” she said.
According to reports, about a week later New York Times, an inverted American flag began to fly in front of Alitos’ house. Baden said she had never seen one.
Subsequently, Joe Biden will be inaugurated as president on January 20, 2021. Baden said she and her husband decided to drive by Alito’s home out of curiosity.
“I don’t know if I expected to see anything or what I expected to see,” she said.
Baden said Martha Ann-Alito happened to be in front of the house.
“She saw us and ran into the street and yelled, but we didn’t hear her,” Baden said. “Our windows were open and we were driving. So we couldn’t hear what she was yelling.
The street was a dead end, which meant Baden and her husband had to turn around and pass Alito’s home a second time.
“We saw in the rearview mirror that she was spitting on our car, or it looked like she was spitting on our car, and we just got out of there,” Baden said. According to Baden’s account, Alito was not close enough to the car to make any contact.
The last and most intense clash between Baden and Alito took place on February 15, 2021.
“My husband and I were just in the driveway. We were collecting trash cans. And then the Alito family” — Justice Alito and Martha-Ann Alito — “came up and they were probably just taking a walk.
Baden said she and her husband were surprised to see them.
“And Mrs. Alito said something like, ‘Well, well, well, if it weren’t for those damn fascists, Emily and my husband’s name and my mother’s name, you’d be — you'” ****Fascists.
Baden said she was surprised when she heard Martha-Ann Alito use each of their full names. Baden never introduced herself by her first name, and she and her husband were not married and did not share a last name.
While Baden was living in northern Virginia, she had a series of tense interactions with Alito’s wife, Martha Ann, during the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
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“That’s when I said back,” Barden said. “I just said, ‘How dare you do this? You represent the highest court in the land. What are you doing? I’m a stranger to you. Is this because of my logo? This is crazy.
Baden admitted she called Martha-Ann Alito the “c-word.”
Alito described the “foul language” he used in the letter, as well as “the most vicious epithets that can be used to address a woman.”
Baden told NPR she now regrets using the word.
“They chose to harass and intimidate us when we meant nothing to them. We were just random people,” Baden said. “So that’s the message I wanted to convey. And, you know, if a curse word somehow cheapens the sentence, then, yeah, I would say I regret saying it.
Baden said Judge Alito remained silent throughout the meeting. Baden yelled, and the Alitos walked away.
“Mr. Alito was walking faster,” she recalled. “He really got out of there.”
Shortly after, Baden’s husband called police and recorded the call. She shared the recording with NPR. The officer who answered the call told them there was nothing he could do after the incident, but said he would call the Alitos’ protection staff.
He told Baden’s husband to call police again if anything happened again. But Baden said that was the last time the Alito family and Baden saw each other.
“My wife is a private citizen who has the same First Amendment rights as any other American,” Alito wrote in a letter to Congress. “She makes her own decisions and I have always respected her right to do so.”
