Why wouldn’t it spark fears that he would easily take bribes? The practically untouchable nature of his position means he’s in the perfect position to do so.
So conservatives rushed in with a steady stream of gifts and perks to make Thomas wealthy so he’d stay and continue rubber stamping anything sent his way. It’s disgustingly corrupt.
I mean, the high salary seems like a perk, but the rest of us get to live with the potential of losing our job when the company has a bad quarter. That enriches my life in ways that a man who’s held lifetime appointments for 33 years will never understand.
In the article they talk about how partners at law firms make $7mil, so yeah, seems like we’d want to pay the highest judge in the land at least as much as some rando firm.
At the same time, I think we should have universal basic income, universal health care and free higher education.
Just saying that strategically, the government should pay high value positions enough that they’re filled by quality candidates and aren’t as vulnerable to bribery.
The Supreme Court is not meant to be on the legal career progression path. It’s a public service position. One can bake in anti-bribery controls independent of pay scale.
Plenty of government workers are underpaid in comparison to similar private sector jobs. If we’re going to start paying people what they’re worth, I say we start with teachers and get to lifetime judicial appointees when we get to 'em.
A key problem here is that it’s much harder to get a bribery conviction in the US than most other first-world countries; you need to actually demonstrate the intent for quid pro quo, not that that the rich are shoveling money at an official.
Uh… real talk: I’m sure all his complaints about money did was to catch the interest of some rich people who were more than happy to enable the Supreme Court justice’s ongoing unsustainable lifestyle.
In the healthcare industry, there’s discussion on whether accepting a free lunch or even a branded pen counts as bribery. But when the Supreme Court does it…
Yeah, this sounds like he has a desperate need to be able to live the lifestyle of other high paid people around the Washington area instead of being content to live very comfortably on almost 300k a year.
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