A group of House Democrats led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Justice Clarence Thomas for failing to report lavish gifts in a Friday afternoon letter.
But the plantiffs will have to now wait longer for their payments.
The Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily blocked a bankruptcy deal for Purdue Pharma that would have shielded members of the billionaire Sackler family, which once controlled the company, from additional civil lawsuits over the opioid epidemic and that capped the Sacklers’ personal liability at $6 billion.
The order is likely to delay any payments to the thousands of plaintiffs who have sued the Sacklers and Purdue, the maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin, which is widely blamed for igniting the opioid crisis. Under the deal, the Sacklers had agreed to pay billions to plaintiffs in exchange for full immunity from all civil legal disputes.
The order was in response to a Justice Department objection to the plan, which the government said allowed members of the Sackler family to take advantage of legal protections meant for debtors in “financial distress,” not for billionaires.
The justices said they would hear arguments in December to decide whether the agreement is authorized by the U.S. bankruptcy code. The case could have far-reaching implications for similar lawsuits.
The Sacklers need to suffer personal loss for what they did.
This is long, long overdue. The entirety of the right-wing appointees should be investigated, and all those receiving these thinly-veiled bribes and perks should be arrested, criminally charged, and removed from the court.
Merrick Garland seems obsessed with Hunter Biden, who isn’t a government official and never has been. Clarence Thomas will have to take a number and wait.
This is an excellent test to see if Democrats can really tie one hand behind their back and win any political argument that covers any and all of the major issues of our day.
And make that the major decision-making issue for independent voters.
And let the chips fall where they may regarding the Hunter Biden imbroglio.
It won’t matter in the long run.
I don’t always agree with AOC, but she knows when to fight rather than writing a ‘sternly worded letter’. Good on her—I wish other Dems would learn to fight like her (cough - Durbin, Duckworth).
I wish more Dems would get caught trying to make these things an issue and bring them to the public’s attention.
Even if it seems unlikely to go anywhere, can’t see it as a bad idea to keep pushing Republicans’ faces into their own shit.
Speaking of which, Repuglican reactions to Garland appointing the special counsel they’ve been loudly demanding could seem counterintuitive; e.g.,
Haley: I don't trust it, I don't think the American people trust it. I think this was meant to be a distraction. It's not a distraction. pic.twitter.com/fYELQ6H1sm
Except of course they already know there is no there there and a whole lot of there wrt Benedict Donald which not only makes comparison invidious and ludicrous but exposes the upturned corner of the rug they’ve swept their shit under for the past eight years.
ETA: fixed a misleading embedding (thx @chelsea530)