Whether or not Justice Alito was part of the decision to fly the inverted flag, there is no question that he is a genuine Republican partisan who is more than willing to share views that echo narratives aired throughout conservative media. In 2020, for example, he warned that liberals were the real threat to freedom of speech. During oral argument in Trump v. United States, he wondered aloud if a president like Trump needed criminal immunity so that he would leave office at the end of his term — a troubling question that took for granted the idea that the prosecutions the former president faces are politically motivated. It is not that far-fetched to think that a Supreme Court justice might have internalized the extreme views of the insurrectionist right. Yes, he is a powerful member of one of the most elite institutions in the country and, yes, he’s highly educated and has access to a wealth of high-quality information. But there is no one living who is fully immune to motivated reasoning or completely unsusceptible to misinformation and disinformation. There is every reason, and then some, to think that Alito believes many of the same things that any other Republican of his age and ideological disposition might also believe, especially when his social world seems to consist of similarly like-minded, goal-oriented partisans. Cynicism is as often as much a form of comfort as it is anything else. It is comforting, in a way, to believe that powerful people have better sense than those they represent or work with or try to appeal to. It is comforting to think that the red meat is for someone else. The disturbing truth is that there’s probably more sincerity than not in American politics. We may not want to believe it, but most of the people in charge say what they mean and mean what they say. -Jamelle Bouie in the NY Times