Opinion: Husband, wife not necessarily in lockstep

I have never been married, nor do I have any children.

I grew up around married people. I descend from a whole line of married people. I have friends who are married people. I deeply admire married people, and I think they tend to be among the happiest folks in the universe.

Marriage is a wonderful institution, but it does not mean the parties to that institution have actually been institutionalized and administered joint lobotomies where all semblance of individuality and agency has been sucked from them.

My olive-skinned, dark-eyed Italian mother was the aesthetic opposite of my freckled, redheaded Irish father.

Their personalities were also quite different, with Mom being generally shy and sweet and my gregarious Daddy having that stereotypical Irish temper. In general, they were polar opposites, separate human beings.

Which brings me to the other couple of the week.

Justice Samuel Alito’s wife Martha Ann has a penchant for flying flags that annoy liberals.

Predictably, there is now a ridiculous attempt to have Justice Alito recuse himself from deliberations over the Jan. 6 and immunity cases.

It’s predictable because the Democrats seem willing to use anything in their arsenal of moral outrage to delegitimize justices who render decisions they don’t like.

While most of the ire used to be directed at Clarence Thomas, the Democrats have shifted their hostility in recent years to Alito, likely because he is the face of the Dobbs decision that overturned their sacrament, uh, right to abortion.

But beyond predictable, as I said, it’s ridiculous.

The way they have pivoted from accusing Harrison Butker of demeaning his wife because she chooses to stay home to saddling a husband with his wife’s personal views is almost comical.

But I’m not laughing, because it’s not funny to play games with our democratic system, as the liberals have been telling me since Nov. 6, 2016.

Some would argue this is not just “a” random husband married to “a” random wife who likes to engage in cosplay with flags.

This is not my mother cringing at my father’s fashion choices. This is a Supreme Court justice who “must” uphold the appearance of neutrality.

Of course I do understand that appearances are extremely important.

Legendary Philadelphia lawyer Shanin Specter, son of the equally legendary Sen. Arlen Spector wrote this on Instagram: “I’m married too. I respect my wife too. She’s independent too. She puts up signs on our property too.

“What is messaged on our property — be it on a sign or a flag — will be assumed to be a statement from both of us. And that means my impartiality might reasonably be questioned were I to adjudicate a case involving such a message. Hence, Justice Alito should recuse.” I was with him until that last line. It is true that a judge’s impartiality might be questioned for a lot of reasons.

I think Judge Juan Merchan’s impartiality is highly questionable due to his daughter’s activities, and yet I don’t believe that he should recuse himself from the “Trump hush money” case.

Just because we think that a judge might have a bias does not mean that he does, and we don’t get the right to make any jurist remove himself because of our subjective issues.

Christine Flowers is a columnist for the Delaware County Daily Times. Contact her at:

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