Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the Sacred Heart of Jesus flag is “insurrectionist symbology.”
The comment was made during a comparison of the Pride flag to the Sacred Heart flag, which Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s wife expressed a desire in flying.
Martha-Ann Alito told activist Lauren Windsor, who secretly recorded Alito, that she wanted to raise the Sacred Heart of Jesus flag in response to the Pride flag.
“You know what I want?” Alito said. “I want a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag because I have to look across the lagoon at the Pride flag for the next month.”
She added that when her husband is “free from this nonsense,” she will be “putting [the flag] up and I’m gonna send them a message every day, maybe every week. I’ll be changing the flags.”
“I also hope that most Americans can understand the difference between a flag that symbolizes love and acceptance and signals to people who have sometimes feared for their safety that they’re going to be okay and insurrectionist symbology,” Buttigieg said on CNN.
Justice Alito’s wife previously displayed an “Appeal to Heaven” flag outside their beach house, causing many to call for his recusal from Donald Trump’s cases regarding January 6. Many protesters flew the flag after January 6, 2021.
In a letter addressed to Democratic Senators, Alito said of the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, “I recall that my wife did fly that flag for some period of time, but I do not remember how long it flew. And what is most relevant here, I had no involvement in the decision to fly that flag.”
“My wife is fond of flying flags. I am not. My wife was solely responsible for having flagpoles put up at our residence and our vacation home and has flown a wide variety of flags over the years,” he continued. “In addition to the American flag, she has flown other patriotic flags (including a favorite flag thanking veterans), college flags, flags supporting sports teams, state and local flags, flags of nations from which the ancestors of family members came, flags of places we have visited, seasonal flags, and religious flags.”
