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I grew up in and around Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love. Philadelphia has long held, and probably still holds, the worst losing record in professional sports history. Although I’ve lived in Alaska for over 45 years, I am a Philadelphia sports fan. I haven’t lived near Philadelphia since 1970. If you’re from Philadelphia, you have no choice. You’re a lifelong fan of your hometown team. You can’t change. That’s the rule.
The way Philadelphia fans cope is to realize that it’s just as fun to hate on your hometown team as it is to root for them. Years ago, I had season tickets to a University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves hockey game. The Seawolves barely won. The fans reacted like Little League parents, encouraging the players by yelling “Nice try” and “Better luck next time.” It was boring. I couldn’t convince others to boo or throw things, so I gave up my tickets.
In the 1960s, the Philadelphia Eagles hired a coach named Joe Kuharich. At the time, he was the only Notre Dame football coach to have a losing record. The Eagles gave him a 15-year contract. During that time, I was in high school and my friends and I had season tickets. Tickets were $75 for the whole season. It was a bargain, but not worth it. The Eagles lost almost every home game. I could live with it because I was a member of the “Joe Must Go Club.” Planes flew overhead with banners bearing the motto. An effigy of Joe hung from one of the goal posts. Before one game, there was a minute of silence for a police officer who had died, during which fans chanted “Joe Must Go.” It’s probably not the best karma, but there was Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin breaking his neck, throwing snowballs at Santa Claus, booing a mentally disabled kid who was shut out of the Easter egg hunt before the Phillies game, and more.
In 1964, the Phillies blew a 6.5-game lead with 12 games left in the season by losing 10 straight games. There were no playoffs back then. You either won and made it to the World Series or you lost. In their 77-year history, the Phillies had rarely been to a World Series and had never won one. Among my oldest possessions is a set of baseball cards of every member of that choker gang.
When Samuel Alito was a candidate for the Supreme Court, a magazine article had a picture of him as a young boy wearing a Phillies uniform. I had a nearly identical picture of myself at that age. That’s when I learned that Alito was from Philadelphia. Otherwise, no responsible parent would let their child root for the Philadelphia team.
In 2008, I heard that the Alaska State Bar was trying to convince Justice Alito to address their annual conference. I was told that Justice Alito hadn’t made a decision yet. Perhaps he hadn’t yet been offered the free fishing trip everyone was talking about these days. The president of the bar was married to a high school friend of mine. I asked him to tell the judge that if he ever came to Alaska, I would show him my 1964 Phillies card collection. Months later, I found out that Justice Alito would be attending the conference. I was told to bring my cards.
I was at the Juneau convention. After Justice Alito addressed the state’s lawyers, I was invited onstage and given a chance to see his cards. I recalled that when he was being considered for Supreme Court nomination, concerns were expressed about his compassion. I remarked that his critics probably didn’t know that Justice Alito had spent his whole life rooting for losers.
At the time of writing, I had intended to conclude with a sarcastic comment that Justice Alito was still rooting for the loser and was clearly a member of a different kind of “Joe Must Go Club.” But over the Memorial Day weekend, I had second thoughts.
Even if you haven’t visited the cemeteries of Arlington, Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Normandy, and others like me, Memorial Day weekend was a time to reflect on what so many young and brave people lost their lives defending. I’d like to think that among those principles was a fair and impartial justice system. I’m from Philadelphia, so I’m not naive. Supreme Court justices are human, too. They don’t put aside their personal beliefs when they wear black robes. But it’s essential that they set those personal beliefs aside and rule according to the law. At the very least, they must be unbiased, as every other judge is sworn to do. To do otherwise would be like sandblasting away the motto “Equal Justice for All” carved into the marble atop the Supreme Court.
Apparently, Justice Alito is sympathetic to MAGA conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. It is unfortunate, but within his rights. He would probably be allowed to fly a flag to that effect over his house, even though all other justices, and even their law clerks, are prohibited from wearing political bumper stickers. But it is unacceptable and a violation of oath and responsibility to advertise his favoritism and then not recuse himself from deciding cases involving those conspiracy theories. Justice Alito comes from the birthplace of our nation, where equal justice under the law was one of the ideals written into the Constitution. It is a disservice to all of us, including the young men and women we honor and remember on Memorial Day weekend. To Justice Alito, I say boo!
Larry Cohn He is a retired attorney and longtime Anchorage resident, and former executive director of the Alaska Judicial Council.
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