North Carolina Chief Justice Hoisted Jan. 6 Associated Flag After Alito Report
GOOD HEAVENS
Paul Newby, a Republican, said he was given the “Appeal to Heaven” flag as a gift prior to the Capitol insurrection and had no idea it had come to be associated with the rioters.
A day after The New York Times reported that a flag associated with the Jan. 6 Capitol riots had been flown over U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s vacation home, the same flag appeared outside a beach house owned by the wife of North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby, according to The News & Observer. In a statement to the Raleigh newspaper, Newby acknowledged the flag’s presence outside the house but pleaded ignorance of its connotations. “Until recently, we had no idea of the association of the ‘An Appeal to Heaven’ flag with anything other than its actual history—a history that reminds us to pray for our nation,” he said. “At no point did we intend the display of the flag to be a political statement, only a statement of our faith.” Newby also said that he flies the flag, which was given to him as a gift before Jan. 6, 2021, on national holidays. The News & Observer reported that it had obtained a photo of the flag being flown outside the beach house on May 23, 2024—the Thursday before the nearest national holiday, Memorial Day, but only a day after the Times story went live.
