Martha-Ann and her flag

~ genderdesk

“My wife did it”. -Samuel Alito

Martha-Ann Alito or Martha Ann Bomgardner is the wife of Supreme Court Justice Samual Alito, who is known for voting to overturn Roe v Wade.  She was involved in a flag controversy after her husband accused her of placing an upside down American flag in their yard after the 2020 election.  The upside down flag is a symbol of the January 6 insurrection. The flag was photographed on their lawn on January 17, 2021.

Personal life

She was born in Ft. Knox, Kentucky.  She received a B.A. in comparative literature from the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, and an M.A. in library science from the Kentucky University’s School of Library and Information Science. She worked as a reference librarian at Neptune Public Library in Neptune, New Jersey, a librarian at the United States Attorney’s Office in Newark, New Jersey, Head of Reference at the U.S. Department of Justice, and Library Director at Congressional Quarterly.

She married Samuel Alito in 1985. They met in the U S Attorney’s Office at the law library in March 1979. They have two children, Laura and Philip.

The couple socialized with prominent evangelical couple Donald and Gayle Wright of Ohio, who were involved with fundraising for the Supreme Court Historical Society. The Wright couple was part of “Operation Higher Court”, led by evangelical clergy Rev. Robert Schenk. Donald Wright died in 2020.

Her husband and his family are Catholic, but her family’s religion is not known.

Martha Ann’s father was Bobby Gene Bomgardner (1930-2012). He had a career in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed in Germany in the 1970s. He was also assigned to the Azores, Texas, France, Maine, and New Jersey.  Her mother was Barbara-Ann Bomgardner (Auwaerter) (1927-2010). Barbara-Ann graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in library science in 1950. She worked in the Wiesbaden Air Base Library, Germany in the 1970s, and spent 25 years working as a librarian for the Air Force.  In the summer of 1980 they returned from Germany and bought a house in Columbus, New Jersey.

Controversies

The flag

Very little is known about this flag thing.  In fact, we know more about Betsy Ross and her flag, or the Star Spangled Banner flag than we know about the Alito Jan. 6 insurrection flag.

Where did it come from? Who bought it? Was is purchased upside down, or did someone modify it. If so, who and why?

So many questions.

All we have is an email from Alito to Newsweek saying his wife did it, and it was something to do with a feud with a neighbor.  A number of pundits have commented on it, and not one of them says this is a convincing explanation.

Hobby Lobby

The Alitos in 2018

Martha-Ann was accused of leaking the 2014 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores case before it was public.  The opinion in the case was authored by her husband. The information was divulged by Robert Schenk who claimed to get it from Gayle Wright, who was claimed to have heard if from the Alitos at a fundraising event. The advance notice gave Hobby Lobby a chance to prepare a PR campaign in advance.

The EPA

Martha Ann Bomgardner Alito owns mineral rights in Oklahoma, inherited from her father. In 2022 she signed an agreement with Citizen Energy III for revenue generated from oil and gas obtained from the property.  In the past Samuel Alito has recused from various cases based on stock inheritances from his father-in-law, however he did not recuse in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency .  In fact, he wrote the majority opinion. The ruling has been considered a setback for the EPA and for water standards, and the Clean Water Act.

Email hacked

Her email was hacked and spam messages sent out under her name. The title was about increasing “document productivity and efficiency throughout your legal drafting workflow.” Presumably she changed her password and now gets periodic reminders claiming her password is on a list of hacked emails and she must change it immediately.

Sources

She is introduced here at 17:20, speaking at a presentation of an award to her husband.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?197300-1/carol-los-mansmann-award

 

Published by genderdesk

Tracking Wikipedia … so the barbarians don't win.

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