More evidence for the need of an ethics board to govern the SC.

Democrats are foaming at the mouth to be able to weaponize government agencies against the Supreme Court.

 

Oppo the Justices: Stasi Left Is Using the Avenatti Playbook
Mark Judge, Stream

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Of course the congress critters will continue their "fact finding junkets around the world" taken during summer recalls as being essential to democracy.

 

Supreme Court 'Ethics' Scandal Is New Russia Hoax
David Harsanyi, The Federalist




Much like the fake Russia conspiracy, the effort to destroy the Supreme Court is a highly coordinated partisan effort. Read More

 

Even Lindsey, in his own curiously naive, defensive way, recognizes there's a problem.

While Defending Supreme Court, Graham Can’t Help But Admit Justices Need ‘To Get Their House In Order’

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the Republican ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday noted that the Supreme Court justices need “to get their house in order,” all the while insisting that Congress needs “to stay out of the Court’s business.”

“The Supreme Court needs to get their house in order and I hope they will,” Graham said during a press conference, in which a group of GOP senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee spent around 20 minutes attacking Democrats for calling for a Supreme Court ethics reform.

“Two things can be true,” Graham added. “The court probably needs to address that issue. I think they do. I believe they will. And Congress needs to stay out of the courts business.”

Graham’s idea that the Court should self-police came in reaction to a bill mark up and vote the Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL), is scheduled to take up on Thursday. The committee will examine Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s (D-RI) Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act, a bill that would require Supreme Court justices to adopt a code of conduct, create a mechanism to investigate alleged violations to that code of conduct and other laws and improve transparency by practices like requiring the justices to explain their recusal decisions to the public.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/...mit-justices-need-to-get-their-house-in-order

 

Influential activist Leonard Leo helped fund media campaign lionizing Clarence Thomas

The 25th anniversary of Clarence Thomas’s confirmation to the Supreme Court was approaching — a moment that would draw attention to his accomplishments on the bench but also to the misconduct claims that had nearly derailed his rise. Among the wave of retrospective accounts set to come out that year, 2016, was a star-studded HBO film dramatically recounting Anita Hill’s sexual harassment allegations.

That spring, a flurry of opinion articles defending Thomas and railing against the film appeared in news outlets, penned by a D.C. lawyer who had worked in the George H.W. Bush White House during the confirmation. Websites celebrating Thomas’s career — and attacking his onetime accuser — popped up. And on Twitter, a new account using the name “Justice Thomas Fan Account” began serving up flattering commentary. “Justice Thomas: The most open & personable of Justices, intimate in sharing his feelings, easily moved to laughter,” read one early tweet on the account.

It was not apparent at the time, but the rush of favorable content was part of a coordinated and sophisticated public relations campaign to defend and celebrate Thomas, according to a Washington Post examination of public and internal records and interviews with people familiar with the effort. The campaign would stretch on for years and include the creation and promotion of a laudatory film about Thomas, advertising to boost positive content about him during internet searches and publication of a book about his life. It was financed with at least $1.8 million from conservative nonprofit groups steered by the judicial activist Leonard Leo, the examination found.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/07/20/leonard-leo-clarence-thomas-paoletta/

Influential as in the organization he heads has hand picked virtually all the conservatives on the Court.

 

Here's an example of why there's no credibility to claims about SCOTUS ethics.
The Washington Post Is Collapsing
Mark Judge, Spectator World

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Politics·Business Insider
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito gives a middle finger to Congress: 'No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court — period.'

 

He's right.

 

Yes, but it would be fun to have "Ethics Boards" all over DC -- and then more "Ethics Boards" to investigate the ethics of all the other "Ethics Boards" ...
The country really needs another Washington merry-go-round for the Insider Swarm to ride around in.

 

I can just see an ethics board, chosen by Congress. What could go wrong?...lol

 

Alito, the Supreme Court's Plain-Spoken Defender
Rivkin & Taranto, Wall Street Journal

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Thanks for reminding us that Business Insider is an extremely partisan trash resource.

 

There's nothing partisan about a SCOTUS justice reminding Congress of a clear Constitutional point.

 

Calling it "giving the middle finger" when he states basic facts is partisan. The original article from WSJ that they took the quotes from was distorted for clickbait.

 

The middle finger image captured the exchange well.

 

Clarence Thomas’ 38 Vacations: The Other Billionaires Who Have Treated the Supreme Court Justice to Luxury Travel

The fullest accounting yet shows how Thomas has secretly reaped the benefits from a network of wealthy and well-connected patrons that is far more extensive than previously understood.

During his three decades on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas has enjoyed steady access to a lifestyle most Americans can only imagine. A cadre of industry titans and ultrawealthy executives have treated him to far-flung vacations aboard their yachts, ushered him into the premium suites at sporting events and sent their private jets to fetch him — including, on more than one occasion, an entire 737. It’s a stream of luxury that is both more extensive and from a wider circle than has been previously understood.

Like clockwork, Thomas’ leisure activities have been underwritten by benefactors who share the ideology that drives his jurisprudence. Their gifts include:

At least 38 destination vacations, including a previously unreported voyage on a yacht around the Bahamas; 26 private jet flights, plus an additional eight by helicopter; a dozen VIP passes to professional and college sporting events, typically perched in the skybox; two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica; and one standing invitation to an uber-exclusive golf club overlooking the Atlantic coast.
https://www.propublica.org/article/...ionaires-sokol-huizenga-novelly-supreme-court

Nothing to see here. At least that is what Clarence wants you to think cuz he didn't report an awful lot of the freebies.

 

House Dems Call On Garland To Investigate Thomas For Failing To Report Lavish Gifts

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.

“Justice Thomas’s consistent failure to disclose gifts and benefits from industry magnates and wealthy, politically active executives highlights a blatant disregard for judicial ethics as well as apparent legal violations,” they write.

In addition to Ocasio-Cortez, the letter is signed by Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Hank Johnson (D-GA).

The letter lists many of the trips and treats Thomas has been gifted by the likes of billionaire Harland Crow.

“All told, Thomas has received at least 38 destination vacations, 26 private jet flights, eight helicopter flights, VIP passes to sporting events, stays at luxury resorts, and an invitation to an exclusive golf club,” they write. “The total value of the undisclosed trips given to Thomas since his appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991 is estimated to be several million dollars, according to ProPublica.”
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/house-democrats-garland-thomas-aoc

Not going to happen. Merrick is consumed by being apolitical.