A young couple called the police in 2021, asking for help dealing with Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alitos wife, Martha-Ann Alito, amid a neighborhood spat at the center of the controversy surrounding an upside-down American flag that was flown outside the justices home in Virginia.

Emily Baden told The New York Times in a recent interview she had moved into her mothers home in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2020 during the pandemic with her then-boyfriend. The first rumblings of any issues with the Alitos came after they posted a sign following the 2020 presidential election that read Bye Don and Fuck Trump. Then-President Donald Trump had just lost to Joe Biden .

Martha-Ann Alito approached Baden after a sign blew down several weeks later and told her she was glad it was gone and that it was offensive. It was the first time the pair had spoken. Baden pledged to keep the sign up at the time, she told the Times.

After the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, Baden and her boyfriend posted new signs that read Trump is a fascist and You are complicit, but her mother later took them down amid concern that the messages would draw attention to her home.

By Jan. 17, 2021, the upside-down flag a symbol of the far-right believers that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump was hung outside the Alitos home.