Rhode Island

U.S. Supreme Court chief declines to discuss Alito flag uproar, ethics with Senate Dems • Rhode Island Current

Published

2 years ago

May 31, 2024

U.S. Supreme Court chief declines to discuss Alito flag uproar, ethics with Senate Dems • Rhode Island Current

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. told leading Democrats on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday he will not meet with them to discuss the court’s code of ethics, following revelations of displays of politically oriented flags at the homes of Justice Samuel Alito.

Individual justices will continue to decide their own recusals, Roberts wrote to Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, a Democrat of Illinois, and Subcommittee on the Federal Courts Chair Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, in a letter obtained by States Newsroom.

Durbin and Whitehouse had asked Roberts a week earlier to force Alito to recuse himself from upcoming decisions related to the 2020 election and to meet to discuss proposals to strengthen Supreme Court ethics rules.

“I must respectfully decline your request for a meeting,” Roberts wrote in the two-paragraph letter dated Thursday. “Separation of powers concerns and the importance of preserving judicial independence counsel against such appearances.”

Justices rarely meet with legislators, particularly those who have expressed an interest in matters before the court, Roberts wrote.

Meeting with members of only one party would be especially problematic, he said.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Durbin rejected Roberts’ reasoning, saying Durbin only sought to address the lack of public confidence in the court.

“The Chief Justice is wrong to say that simply meeting with members of Congress to discuss the Supreme Court’s ethics crisis threatens the separation of powers or judicial independence,” the spokesperson wrote.

“Due to the Chief Justice’s intransigence, Chair Durbin will continue his efforts to pass legislation establishing an enforceable code of conduct for all nine Supreme Court justices — regardless of which President appointed them.”

“It is frustrating that the Chief Justice of the United States refused to address the aspect of our letter addressed to him as chair of the Judicial Conference,” said Whitehouse in a statement. “Close reading of text is an attribute of a good judge. Simply ignoring text is often a sign that there’s not a good answer.”

Whitehouse said the Judicial Conference is a body created and funded by Congress, enforcing laws passed by Congress.

“It is an administrative body, not an adjudicative body,” Whitehouse added. “Even if there were a proper separation of powers argument here, which I don’t believe, it would not extend to the Conference. All this means is that the work must continue until we have a Supreme Court that applies to itself basic tenets of rule of law: honest fact-finding and neutral decision-making. That really should not be hard.”

‘Immediately take appropriate steps’

Durbin and Whitehouse wrote to Roberts on May 23, asking him “to immediately take appropriate steps to ensure that Justice Alito will recuse himself in any cases related to the 2020 presidential election and January 6th attack on the Capitol.”

Flags at two Alito homes appeared to promote former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that his loss in the 2020 election was the result of a rigged election. That claim spurred the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.

A May 22 New York Times report documented that a flag at Alito’s Virginia home flew upside down in the weeks following the 2020 election. Alito told the Times that his wife displayed that flag in reaction to a neighborhood dispute.

A New Jersey vacation home belonging to the Alitos was photographed in the summer of 2023 flying an “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which bears that slogan above a simple pine tree design. The second flag was also first reported in the New York Times.

Both flags were carried by rioters during the Capitol attack, raising questions for Durbin and Whitehouse about Alito’s ability to be objective in cases concerning former President Donald Trump’s role in the attack.

The court heard oral arguments last month in a case about whether presidential immunity shielded Trump from prosecution on federal charges he sought to overturn the legitimate election results.

The Democratic senators specified that the case was one from which Alito should recuse himself.

Roberts’ letter said Alito had written to the committee himself on that issue. That letter was not immediately available Thursday.

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Related Topics:Dick Durbin Featured John G. Roberts Jr.samuel alito Sheldon Whitehouse u.s. supreme court

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Rhode Island

RI’s Civil War history reveals an overlooked soldier | Opinion

Published

11 hours ago

March 8, 2026

Press Room

RI’s Civil War history reveals an overlooked soldier | Opinion

Marta V. Martínez
| Guest columnist

Amos (Ramos) Butler was a Mexican-born man who served in a segregated Black regiment during the Civil War.
His story highlights how 19th-century records often altered or erased the identities of immigrants and people of color.
Butler’s likely surname, Ramos, appears to have been Anglicized to Butler in official military documents.
Highlighting his story adds diversity to Rhode Island’s Civil War history for the nation’s 250th anniversary.

As Rhode Island joins the nation in marking its 250th anniversary, I’ve been asked a fair and important question: Why highlight Amos (Ramos) Butler? Why elevate one individual when there are so many well-documented figures already woven into our state’s history?

My answer is simple: because history is not only about what we have long remembered, but about what we failed to see.

I did not set out to find Amos Butler. I encountered him while researching Civil War records connected to Rhode Island: lists of names, enlistment dates, regiments. In those records, I found a man listed as “Amos Butler,” born in Mexico, who served in the 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery Regiment (Colored) during the Civil War. His name alone gave me pause. Amos is not a common Mexican name. That detail led me deeper into the archive, where questions of identity, language and recordkeeping began to surface.

What emerged was not a heroic legend or a tidy narrative, but something more historically instructive: a glimpse into how 19th-century bureaucracies recorded – or misrecorded – immigrant lives.

Amos Butler served alongside Black soldiers in a segregated regiment at a moment when the nation was redefining freedom, citizenship and belonging. His likely Spanish surname, Ramos, appears to have been Anglicized – or misunderstood – by the very system charged with preserving his service. That single alteration tells us a great deal about how people like him moved through official history: fully present and contributing, yet partially obscured.

This is not about retroactively assigning modern identities or reshaping the past to fit contemporary frameworks. It is about acknowledging what the records themselves reveal. Civil War historians know well that military documents often flatten race, erase origin, and simplify identity. Butler’s story fits squarely within that established scholarship. What makes it notable is that it unfolds here, in Rhode Island.

State histories tend to emphasize regiments, battles and leadership. Far less attention is given to the individual enlisted men whose lives complicate our assumptions about who served and why. Butler’s story adds texture to Rhode Island’s Civil War narrative by reminding us that migration, race and service were already intertwined long before the 20th century.

The 250th anniversary of the United States invites reflection, not revisionism. Major commemorations have always prompted historians to revisit archives, ask new questions, and consider whose experiences were overlooked. But commemoration is also, at its best, an act of recognition. To name and remember people of color who lived, labored and served in earlier generations is not to diminish the past – it is to honor it more fully. Their lives are not footnotes to history; they are part of its foundation.

We often say that history is written by those who leave records. But it is also shaped by how carefully we read those records – and whether we are willing to notice the irregularities, the misspellings, the lives that don’t quite fit our expectations.

Honoring Amos Butler is not about elevating one person above others. It is about acknowledging that the American story, and Rhode Island’s story within it, has always been broader and more diverse than the version many of us inherited.

At 250 years, we have an opportunity not only to look back, but to commemorate those whose presence affirms that people of color have always been here – living, serving and shaping this country in ways we are only beginning to fully recognize.

Marta V. Martínez is the executive director of Rhode Island Latino Arts. She serves on the RI250 Commission. Martínez is producing a first-person monologue of Amos (Ramos) Butler, which will be presented as part of the RI250 celebration.

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Rhode Island

Michael Flynn attends ‘Rhode Island First’ rally in Warwick

Published

23 hours ago

March 8, 2026

Press Room

Michael Flynn attends ‘Rhode Island First’ rally in Warwick

WARWICK, R.I. (WJAR) — Former U.S. National Security Advisor Michael Flynn appeared at a “Rhode Island First” rally in Warwick Saturday night with Vic Mellor, a congressional candidate running to unseat Rep. Seth Magaziner in Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District.

Protestors gathered near the entrance of the Crowne Plaza Providence-Warwick ahead of the rally, where Flynn and Mellor gave remarks along with other conservative speakers and musicians.

“The purpose of this is to motivate the base, because there’s such a high percentage of Republicans and Independents that don’t vote,” Mellor said.

Devin Bates reports on a rally for Vic Mellor, a Republican challenger to Rep. Seth Magaziner, that featured Michael Flynn. (WJAR)

Protestors picketing outside the hotel felt differently, with organizers calling out the hotel’s owners for hosting “individuals associated with the January 6 insurrection, election denialism, and extreme rhetoric.”

“We don’t agree with Crowne Plaza letting them be here, we think it’s kind of sad that they do,” said Kristen Lancaster. “They’re not pro-democracy, they’re anti-healthcare, anti-science.”

Ahead of the rally, Flynn shared his thoughts about Rhode Island’s current federal delegation as Mellor seeks to become the first GOP candidate elected to statewide office since 2006, when Donald Carcieri was re-elected as governor.

“You’ve got manufacturing potential here, you have a workforce that really could be first class, but you don’t have a federal elected body of people right now that are bringing that back, because they’re fighting opportunity,” Flynn said.

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NBC 10 News reached out to IHG Hotels and Resorts for comment on protestors’ frustration over the Crowne Plaza hosting this event, but the company had not responded.

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Rhode Island

Rhode Island Foundation Awards $5.2M to Newport County Nonprofits in Record Grant Year – Newport Buzz

Published

2 days ago

March 7, 2026

Press Room

Rhode Island Foundation Awards .2M to Newport County Nonprofits in Record Grant Year – Newport Buzz

NEWPORT, R.I. — The Rhode Island Foundation awarded more than $5.2 million in grants to Newport County nonprofits in 2025, contributing to a record-setting year for the organization as it marked the largest grant-making total in its 109-year history.

Among the local organizations receiving support were Strategic Prevention Partnerships (SPP) in Portsmouth and Turning Around Ministries in Newport, both working to address urgent community needs.

SPP received $125,000 to expand its No Wrong Door initiative, a program designed to help Newport County firefighters, EMTs and police officers cope with trauma-related anxiety, PTSD and depression.

“Behind their uniforms, many First Responders face mental health challenges stemming from the high-stress nature of the job,” said Rebecca Elwell, SPP’s executive director. “From the increasing day-to-day traumatic events to large-scale incidents, critical calls are becoming more frequent.”

Turning Around Ministries received $70,000 to continue its work helping residents facing financial hardship access affordable housing, workforce development programs and long-term financial stability.

“The number of unhoused and un- or under-employed people in Newport County is increasing, and so is the number of people needing our help,” said Cheryl Robinson, the organization’s president. “Participants know we are there for them and committed for the long haul.”

Other Newport County nonprofits receiving grants include the Boys & Girls Clubs of Newport County, Newport Community School, East Bay Community Action Program, Conexion Latina Newport, Little Compton Community Center, Jamestown Community Food Pantry and the Newport County YMCA.

Statewide, the Rhode Island Foundation awarded a record $93 million to more than 2,600 nonprofit organizations in 2025, while also launching a new Five-Year Action Plan aimed at addressing some of the state’s most pressing challenges.

“Our work last year reflects what the community identified as their priorities and the areas where we could play a deeper role,” said David Cicilline, the foundation’s president and CEO.

The plan focuses on five community priorities: civic and cultural life, climate action and sustainability, education and student success, healthy and strong communities, and housing and economic mobility.

In addition to its record grant-making, the foundation raised $82 million in donations in 2025, its third-best fundraising year.

“The generosity of Rhode Islanders allows us to respond to emerging issues and invest in initiatives that strengthen communities across the state,” Cicilline said.

New England Patriots plane used to evacuate Americans from the Middle East during the U.S.-Iran conflict

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