Published Jun 16, 2024

A petition created by Faithful America is nearing its goal of signatures on Sunday as they demand Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to resign amid his recent controversies.

In its petition from Wednesday, with a goal of 15,000 signatures, Faithful America, an organization of Christians supporting social justice causes while opposing "Christian nationalism," is demanding the conservative justice resign after he was heard in a secret recording agreeing that the United States should return "to a place of godliness" as well as for two flags that were previously flown outside the justice's home.

"You are unfit to serve on our nation's highest court, and we demand that you immediately resign...This man is far from impartial and cannot remain a justice on our nation's highest court. As a grassroots movement of Christians, let's join together to demand that Justice Alito immediately resign," the petition states.

Newsweek has reached out to Faithful America and the Supreme Court via email for comment.

Last month, The New York Times reported that the associate justice flew an upside-down American flag outside his home in Virginia on January 17, 2021. The inverted flag is associated with the "Stop the Steal" movement that has been used by supporters of former President Donald Trump to contest the 2020 presidential election results and was taken less than two weeks after a group of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building on January 6. Alito said his wife had raised the inverted flag during a dispute with their neighbors over an anti-Trump lawn sign.

Meanwhile, Alito is also said to have flown a Christian nationalist or an "Appeal to Heaven" flag outside his summer home in Long Beach Island, New Jersey, in July and September 2023. As the Times reported, the flag has been used by conservatives in recent years, including by some Trump supporters during the U.S. Capitol riot.

In addition, the justice has faced further scrutiny over audio recordings that Rolling Stone published on Monday, which detailed the candid audio of Alito that was recorded "undercover" by liberal documentary filmmaker Lauren Windsor, posing as a conservative while attending the Supreme Court Historical Society dinner on June 3.

In the recordings, Alito can be heard agreeing with Windsor that "winning" will end the liberal-conservative U.S. ideological divide and endorsing a call to "return our country to a place of godliness."

"One side or the other is going to win," Alito says. "I mean, there can be a way of working, a way of living together peacefully, but it's difficult...Because there are differences on fundamental things that really can't be compromised. They really can't be compromised. So it's not like you are going to split the difference."

Faithful America added in its petition, which has garnered 12,181 signatures as of Sunday morning, that his comments are not only impartial, but "endorse a Christian-nationalist agenda."

"These extraordinary comments twist our faith, endorse a Christian-nationalist agenda, and violate the Constitutional separation of church and state—and that's not all...These comments distort Christianity, violate the separation of church and state, and appear to endorse an extra-judicial agenda of Christian nationalism," the petition states.

Supreme Court justices serve lifetime appointments, meaning they only leave the bench if they resign, retire, are removed from office or pass away.

Meanwhile, in response to the ongoing controversy, several critics have also called for Alito to remove himself from the Court's ruling on Trump's presidential immunity case. The former president is seeking protection from federal charges related to his actions in the aftermath of the 2020 election through presidential immunity.

However, Alito has continued to state he "had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag," placing all the responsibility on his wife, Martha-Ann Alito. In addition, in a letter to Democratic senators dated May 29 the justice told them that he refused to recuse himself because incidents they cited did "not meet the conditions for recusal."