Wait, We’ve Been Flying the Flag the Alitos Had? San Francisco Takes It Down.

It turns out that the New Jersey vacation home of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. was not the only surprising place where a provocative flag adopted by Jan. 6, 2021, rioters has flown recently.

For 60 years, residents in San Francisco could have spotted the flag in a public pavilion just a stone’s throw from the mayor’s balcony at City Hall. The “Appeal to Heaven” flag was among the 18 historic banners that billowed over a central plaza in one of the nation’s most liberal cities, where fewer than 13 percent of voters supported former President Donald J. Trump in the 2020 election.

Few people, including Mayor London Breed, made much of the white flag with a green pine tree. Until last week.

A San Francisco resident raised concerns that the “Appeal to Heaven” flag was flying over the city, after revelations in The New York Times that the same flag had flown outside Justice Alito’s second home on Long Beach Island, N.J. Critics said Justice Alito should have recused himself from cases related to the Jan. 6 attack because of the flag’s association with the rioters at the U.S. Capitol who attempted to stop the certification of Joe Biden as president.

Ms. Breed ordered the flag’s removal, and city employees replaced it on Saturday with an American flag, according to Jeff Cretan, a spokesman for the mayor. A bronze plaque that explained the history of the flag was also removed from the pole.

The flag dates to the Revolutionary War and was flown from George Washington’s ships as a symbol of rebellion against the British. Above the tree, the white flag has the words “An Appeal to Heaven” in black lettering. It has been adopted in recent years by conservatives seeking to inject Christianity into American government, as well as by supporters of Mr. Trump and the “Stop the Steal” campaign — efforts that are deeply unpopular in San Francisco.