Federal judge forced to apologize for essay criticizing Alito during flag controversy

[mystery-ak]

Federal judge forced to apologize for essay criticizing Alito during flag controversy
By
Jack Birle
December 18, 2024 10:11 am
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A federal judge who said Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was damaging faith in the Supreme Court has been forced to apologize for publicly criticizing the justice.

Senior Judge Michael Ponsor criticized Alito in an essay for the New York Times, blasting the Supreme Court justice for flying an upside-down American flag outside his home in Virginia and a Revolutionary War-era “Appeal to Heaven” flag outside his beach home. Democrats complained that the flags were an indication of Alito’s bias toward Republicans and demanded he recuse himself from cases involving President-elect Donald Trump that were before the court.

Ponsor, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton who took the court in 1994, wrote that Alito’s decision to fly the flags was “improper” and “dumb” in a surprising broadside as federal judges rarely criticize other judges publicly, especially not Supreme Court justices.

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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/3263735/federal-judge-forced-apologize-essay-criticizing-alito-flag-controversy/

[PeteS in CA]

From the article:

However, an investigation by Chief Judge Albert Diaz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, after a complaint about the essay was filed found Ponsor had violated rules and harmed “public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”

Diaz found the essay eroded the “public’s confidence in the integrity and independence of the judiciary” and could “reasonably be viewed as a commentary on partisan issues.”

The complaint about Ponsor’s essay said the senior judge’s comments were “highly inappropriate, baseless, and prejudicial political speech by a judge against another judge while he is deciding the legal fates of criminal defendants going through the judicial process.”

Ponsor did what he falsely accused Alito of doing.