Court analyst shreds Justice Alito's flag stunt: His 'brain has been pickled' by Fox News

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's explanation for why a MAGA election denial upside-down flag was displayed at his house was completely unhinged, legal reporter Mark Joseph Stern told MSNBC's Alex Wagner on Friday evening — and his attempt to pin it all on his wife having a dispute over an anti-Trump sign with their neighbor was completely unconvincing.

Wagner opened with a passage from Stern's latest article for Slate, which read, "The sheer pettiness of these gripes — the fact that these men continue to filter justice through their small, round, grudge-colored glasses — is what is breathtaking here. If being an unelected, lifetime-appointed, unbound-by-rules jurist means anything at all, should it not mean that you perhaps rise above your grassy suburban neighborhood’s feelings wars? Apparently not. Apparently the life-altering principle of self-soothing your small injuries matters above all things."

"So, Mark, destroy the court and own the libs. Is that what is happening here?" Wagner asked.

ALSO READ: Delay, delay: Lauren Boebert keeping personal finances secret until after GOP primary

"That is Martha-Ann Alito and Sam Alito's M.O. as far as we can tell," said Stern. "Frankly, anyone who has been paying attention to Justice Alito's own behavior on the court probably should have seen this coming, including me. I mean, Justice Alito is a tragic and perfect example of what happens when someone's brain has been pickled in the brine of Fox News for years and years on end. He has gone from being a smart, sharp, somewhat partisan conservative to being an all-out MAGA justice who clearly attempts to wield the law to benefit Donald trump in every way possible and own the libs."

"It is quite clear that he and his wife are one on this," Stern continued. "He and his wife have always been close. She has been known to him to the courtroom for big hearings. She has very strong anti-abortion beliefs. Justice Alito himself attempted to intervene over and over again in 2020. You know, I think it is clear. If he disagreed sincerely with his wife putting up a Stop the Steal flag, he would have stopped her or he would have taken it down. It is his house too."

"The fact he didn't shows just how low he is willing to go to express his beliefs," he added. "It's not enough to say it from the bench. It is not enough to spew it out in bile in his opinions. He has to put it in his neighbor's face. He doesn't even deny it. He makes up an excuse for why he had to do it, because his neighbors were mean to them."

Watch the video below or at the link here.

Mark Joseph Stern on Samuel Alito www.youtube.com