I’m curious if clerks sign any sort of employment agreement spelling out rights they relinquish if they’re suspected of such a breach. Or not suspected of anything at all, they just agree in advance the court can request certain records or other items, at any time, as a condition of their employment?
7 Likes
Doing this will exacerbate Roberts’ problems. The reputation of SCOTUS is quite low (aside from the Right).
Mentioned upthread was the slick way certain people lied to get ON the Court.
Now they’re talking about holding people to some sort of “moral” stance???
20 Likes
Should this go to trial, Discovery should be fun.
I maintain that, regardless of the outcome, their pool of available law clerks will be substantially reduced.
5 Likes
Well, the majority Justices don’t want any of the GOOD ones, anyway.
7 Likes
Nah, just the composition of the clerks applying. There’ll never be a shortage of zealots from Christianist law schools wanting SCOTUS cred on their résumé, enabling them to go out into the world and fight for God’s laws.
13 Likes
I’ll grant you that there may be Due Process issues in SCOTUS seeking to require the law clerks to turn over their phone records and whatnot. But there are no First Amendment issues involved unless the leaker wants to claim that Jebus made him do the leak so he’s exempt from all applicable laws.
11 Likes
Yes, the small fry will be made the scapegoats for Johnny Roger Taney Roberts’ incompetence and right wing extremism. That’s usually the way it works with this court. Smoke, mirrors, lies. This court interprets the Constitution based on the bible, Heritage Foundation orders and finds precedent and legal frameworks from the Witch Trials, christian law of the Middle Ages and the experiments on women by the Germans during World War II.
6 Likes
Freedom of assembly with the sub-right of association. If they’re snooping through private cellphone records, they’re looking at who the people have contacted and been with.
5 Likes
So if you’re a drug trafficker, the people talking to you are having their freedom of association rights violated if the cops review their records?
How can it go to trial when no crime has been committed?
22 Likes
Yup. Unless they’re implicated in a crime, just hanging out with drug traffickers thankfully isn’t illegal.
5 Likes
I maintain that, regardless of the outcome, their pool of available law clerks will be substantially reduced.
I hear John Eastman is available…for now
6 Likes
If the clerks are getting representation (and I would highly recommend it), there will be some kind of hearing to figure out what’s legal here. That said, there should be some discovery, no?
You’re right - nothing has happened yet. I’m looking at the day when it does. There are some things I am certain Roberts doesn’t want revealed about how poorly his court is run and how many POSSIBLE violations are taking place.
10 Likes
So I reckon the clerks should lawyer up: any one think maybe we should start a GoGundMe for them?
For some reason I’m reminded of Bolt’s A Man For All Seasons, the line about “I shall hide myself in the thickets of the law where they shall not find me.”(approximately)
Also, as Everyone who’s Anyone in DC knows, the Spouses Supreme are by definition apolitical, and never act as public (much less pubic as I initially typed) figures or political actors…
6 Likes
After Trump/ McConnell nothing is illegal except outing Repubs.
4 Likes
There is no federal law preventing the release of draft SCOTUS opinions.
No court hearing will ensue.
14 Likes
Sure, I would just hand over my personal data from my phone to right wing hacks, no problem./snark
6 Likes
Doubt it. Supreme court clerks have the inside track to things like lifetime appointments as federal judges down the road, there are always going to be people who want to have the power of life and death and freedom over others.
11 Likes
The most concerning thing about Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul getting a DUI is that Clarence Thomas’ wife Ginni is a psychotic fascist talibangelical domestic terrorist cultist who tried to overthrow the government.
— The USA Singers (@TheUSASingers) May 31, 2022
37 Likes
Unless one of the clerks was unbelievably bold and didn’t care about keeping his or her job, then it wasn’t them.
And the SCOTUS will always have people lining up to be clerks, so there’s no chilling effect on clerkship for those of you who think there is. No. It’s a very plum legal job.
22 Likes