This article was originally published at ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1470720
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1470720
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Yes, many issues have been raised, many, many thoughtful questions being asked, and furrowed brows as well, but here’s how it will play out:
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Behold, the arrogance of power.
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[Alito] elaborated on his reasoning: private jets would count as “facilities” under the law’s definition of personal hospitality.
So there’s the English language and common understanding of the English language, then there’s what lawyers say is the English language?
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If Clarence can’t get his travel expenses reimbursed by his employer, the U.S. Government, then it’s PERSONAL. His – and Ginni’s – federal income tax returns should be released. No more of this “range” of incomes and property values.
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BECAUSE I’M CLARENCE THOMAS, BITCH!
This is all of the explanation that is necessary.
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Apparently, there was a time in America’s past where behavioral norms would have precluded this crap. but if that time ever existed, it has long since passed. This is both sickening and enraging on the face of it. But then to also know that likely nothing will change, just feels like a gut punch. I am a hopeful person generally, but we appear to be still headed in the wrong direction wth no clear end in sight.
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The way I see it is that if Pro Publica and the Dems keep talking about how Clarence doesn’t play by the loosie goosey rules as written, well then there’s something going on. It’s just a page out of the Republican playbook.
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Same as it ever is – just kick the can down the road for another decade or so. Nice job, as always ,by the Judge Thomas F. Hogan, appointed to the Federal Court by Ronald Reagan, and good buddy of “Potted Plant” Cjhief Justice, John Roberts…
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Thr SCOTUS has no ethical rules. They do not need to follow the ethical behavior guidelines every other judge and lawyer must follow. They are above ethics just as trump thinks he is above any law and casts himself as a victim of a cruel system run by the deep state, Biden’s crime family, Soros’ pets and space aliens with their powerful space lasers that change ballots while in the hands of voters.
Edit to add
There is war in Ukraine, war in Gaza/Israel, conflict in Armenia with mass evacuations along ethnic lines… and the House cannot find its ass with either hand.
What a world
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Unitary Supreme Judiciary, similar to the unitary executive, is accountable to no one while in office. That form of government " of, by, and for the people" is so yesterday in its quaint aspiration.
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There are rules, even for SCOTUS. The problem seems to be oversight and enforcement. The lower down the judicial food chain the tighter the enforcement.
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And when you have so many Ultra right-wing Federal Judges who are still alive and passing judgement in the hallowed halls of the land, there will be no oversight and enforcement of high-level officials.
I hope the Senate is up to speed on approving new liberal Federal Judges. Pack the Courts while we can!
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All praise to ProPublica. But the notion that Thomas’s violation of his own standards “makes a mockery” of ethics is late to the party. In these ethics dust-ups, both Thomas and Alito have been basically acting as judges in their own cases. It’s been mockery all the way down from the get-go. Tell 'em Woody.
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The Judicial Conference is made of 27 federal judges (none of which have been appointed by Trump). Why can’t this conference impose some ethical standards on the SCOTUS?
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This how I see the problem. When there is conflict between agencies, states, and groups of people the final arbiter is the Supreme Court. The problem lies that who polices the “final court’s members”? We’ve had, I think it was Alito, who said basically “Congress ain’t the boss of me”. Which is BS, but this is the mentality of some of the judges sitting on our highest court. This also can be used as an argument on how representational government systems don’t work.
I don’t believe that representational governments don’t work, I’d rather have what we had than Mad Max type of society. And the movers and shakers think that what they, as a group, want is to control the populace, if that happens then they turn on each other.
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Many of these Judges are conservatives appointed by Reagan (!), H.W. Bush, and his son, Schrub.
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On The Media (a podcast), in collaboration with Pro Publica, just dropped the second part of a three part series on Leonard Leo and the decades long war to completely buy the courts across the country right down to the state level. There is an correlative Slate podcast called Amicus with Dahlia Lithwick talking to one of the Pro Publica reporters about some of the background reporting that helped to create the series that just dropped yesterday…
While we are distracted and infuriated by the GQP circus, and the damage they are doing to our country, Leo and the Federalistas are the real insurrection - and we are reaping the bitter fruit of it every week.
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Grifters will grift and Thomas is a prime example of grifting at the highest and most corrupt level.
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Has Leonard Leo been audited by the IRS? I mean here is man who has done all the dirty work and heavy lifting for decades…and what has he gotten out of this?
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