The Alitos' neighbor is telling all.
Baden describes herself as a “leftist,” but says she initially did not think much about the Alitos down the street. The Alito house is farther down the cul-de-sac, and not visible from her mother’s front yard.
After Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, Baden celebrated and put up a handmade sign in the yard. On one side it said “BYE-DON,” and on the other “F*** Trump.”
One day, Baden says, the wind blew the sign down. According to Baden, Martha-Ann Alito happened to drive by and thanked Baden for taking the sign down. But Baden had no intention of leaving the sign down.
“I say, ‘I'm going to keep the sign up. Thank you. Bye.’ Or something like that. And that was it,” she says.
After the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Baden put up a new sign stating, “You are complicit” and “Trump Is A Fascist.”
The following day, Baden says she and her husband were sitting in their car parked in front of her mother’s house, when someone drove up next to them.
“The person inside just stares at us, just glares at us,” Baden says. “And I was just sitting there, like, thinking to myself, ‘oh, my God, that's that's Mrs. Alito. That's her.’ And she's stopped there for a period of time that feels like forever and then drives off.”
“I texted some friends like, ‘You guys will never believe what just happened. I'm so weirded out right now,’” she says.
About a week or so later, according to the New York Times, the upside-down American flag started flying in front of the Alitos’ house. Baden says she never saw it.
Then, on Jan. 20, 2021, Joe Biden was set to be inaugurated as president. Baden says she and her husband decided to drive by the Alito home out of curiosity.
“I don't know if I expected to see anything or what I expected to see,” she says.
Baden says Martha Ann-Alito happened to be in front of the house.
“And she sees us and runs out to the street and she's yelling something and we don't hear it,” Baden says. “Our windows are up and we're in motion. So we don't hear what she's yelling.”
The street is a cul-de-sac, which meant Baden and her husband had to turn around and pass by the Alito home a second time.
“And we see in our rearview mirror that she, like, spits at our car, or it looks like she spat at our car and then we just got the hell out of there,” Baden says. In Baden’s account, Alito was not close enough to the car to make any contact.
The final – and most heated – encounter between Baden and the Alitos took place on Feb. 15, 2021.
“My husband and I are just in the driveway. We're getting the trash cans. And then the Alitos” - both Justice Alito and Martha-Ann Alito - “walk up, they presumably were just taking a walk.”
Baden says she and her husband were startled to see them.
“And then then Mrs. Alito says something like, ‘well, well, well, if it isn't the the f****** fascists, Emily and my husband's name and my mom's name, you're - you're a f****** fascist.’”
Baden says she was surprised to hear Martha-Ann Alito use each of their full names. Baden had never introduced herself by name, and she and her husband were not yet married and did not share a last name.
“And that was when I spoke back,” Baden says. “I just said, like, ‘How dare you behave this way? You represent the highest court in the land. What are you doing? I'm a stranger to you. This is because of my sign? That's insane.’”
Baden acknowledges that she called Martha-Ann Alito the “c-word.”
Alito described the use of “foul language” in his letter, and the “vilest epithet that can be addressed to a woman.”
Baden told NPR she now regrets using the word.
“They're choosing to harass and intimidate us when we are nothing to them. We're just random people,” Baden says. “So that would have been the message that I wanted to convey. And, you know, and if a curse word cheapened that somehow, then, yeah, I would say that I regretted saying it.”
Baden says Justice Alito remained silent throughout the entire encounter. As Baden yelled, the Alitos walked away.
“Mr. Alito is walking away much quicker,” she remembered. “he really got out of there.”
Soon after, Baden’s husband called the police and recorded the call. She shared the recording with NPR. The officer who answered told them that there was nothing he could do after the fact, but said that he would call the Alitos’ protective detail.
He told Baden’s husband to call the police again if there was another incident. But Baden says that was the last time that the Alitos and Baden encountered each other.
“My wife is a private citizen, and she possesses the same First Amendment rights as every other American,” Alito wrote in his letter to Congress. “She makes her own decisions, and I have always respected her right to do so.”
A series of increasingly heated encounters
Baden and her husband (then boyfriend) moved in to her mother’s home in northern Virginia in 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced her to stop working as an actor and restaurant server in New York.Baden describes herself as a “leftist,” but says she initially did not think much about the Alitos down the street. The Alito house is farther down the cul-de-sac, and not visible from her mother’s front yard.
After Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, Baden celebrated and put up a handmade sign in the yard. On one side it said “BYE-DON,” and on the other “F*** Trump.”
One day, Baden says, the wind blew the sign down. According to Baden, Martha-Ann Alito happened to drive by and thanked Baden for taking the sign down. But Baden had no intention of leaving the sign down.
“I say, ‘I'm going to keep the sign up. Thank you. Bye.’ Or something like that. And that was it,” she says.
After the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Baden put up a new sign stating, “You are complicit” and “Trump Is A Fascist.”
The following day, Baden says she and her husband were sitting in their car parked in front of her mother’s house, when someone drove up next to them.
“The person inside just stares at us, just glares at us,” Baden says. “And I was just sitting there, like, thinking to myself, ‘oh, my God, that's that's Mrs. Alito. That's her.’ And she's stopped there for a period of time that feels like forever and then drives off.”
“I texted some friends like, ‘You guys will never believe what just happened. I'm so weirded out right now,’” she says.
About a week or so later, according to the New York Times, the upside-down American flag started flying in front of the Alitos’ house. Baden says she never saw it.
Then, on Jan. 20, 2021, Joe Biden was set to be inaugurated as president. Baden says she and her husband decided to drive by the Alito home out of curiosity.
“I don't know if I expected to see anything or what I expected to see,” she says.
Baden says Martha Ann-Alito happened to be in front of the house.
“And she sees us and runs out to the street and she's yelling something and we don't hear it,” Baden says. “Our windows are up and we're in motion. So we don't hear what she's yelling.”
The street is a cul-de-sac, which meant Baden and her husband had to turn around and pass by the Alito home a second time.
“And we see in our rearview mirror that she, like, spits at our car, or it looks like she spat at our car and then we just got the hell out of there,” Baden says. In Baden’s account, Alito was not close enough to the car to make any contact.
The final – and most heated – encounter between Baden and the Alitos took place on Feb. 15, 2021.
“My husband and I are just in the driveway. We're getting the trash cans. And then the Alitos” - both Justice Alito and Martha-Ann Alito - “walk up, they presumably were just taking a walk.”
Baden says she and her husband were startled to see them.
“And then then Mrs. Alito says something like, ‘well, well, well, if it isn't the the f****** fascists, Emily and my husband's name and my mom's name, you're - you're a f****** fascist.’”
Baden says she was surprised to hear Martha-Ann Alito use each of their full names. Baden had never introduced herself by name, and she and her husband were not yet married and did not share a last name.
“And that was when I spoke back,” Baden says. “I just said, like, ‘How dare you behave this way? You represent the highest court in the land. What are you doing? I'm a stranger to you. This is because of my sign? That's insane.’”
Baden acknowledges that she called Martha-Ann Alito the “c-word.”
Alito described the use of “foul language” in his letter, and the “vilest epithet that can be addressed to a woman.”
Baden told NPR she now regrets using the word.
“They're choosing to harass and intimidate us when we are nothing to them. We're just random people,” Baden says. “So that would have been the message that I wanted to convey. And, you know, and if a curse word cheapened that somehow, then, yeah, I would say that I regretted saying it.”
Baden says Justice Alito remained silent throughout the entire encounter. As Baden yelled, the Alitos walked away.
“Mr. Alito is walking away much quicker,” she remembered. “he really got out of there.”
Soon after, Baden’s husband called the police and recorded the call. She shared the recording with NPR. The officer who answered told them that there was nothing he could do after the fact, but said that he would call the Alitos’ protective detail.
He told Baden’s husband to call the police again if there was another incident. But Baden says that was the last time that the Alitos and Baden encountered each other.
“My wife is a private citizen, and she possesses the same First Amendment rights as every other American,” Alito wrote in his letter to Congress. “She makes her own decisions, and I have always respected her right to do so.”
