Jay Kuo on the Supreme Court's toothless new PR window-dressing ethics code:
"If you’re going to abide by a solid set of ethical rules that governs the behavior of your group, it’s a mistake to have the group itself craft it. ...
For the Supreme Court to truly be accountable, an outside, independent body needs to step in to impose the rules."
"The Supreme Court’s new ethics code is a joke The code is so weak that it serves to legitimize Clarence Thomas’s corruption. It is literally worse than nothing."
"Yesterday, the Supreme Court announced an ethics code for the justices. But the code is utterly empty. It has no enforcement mechanism and no mechanism for the public to lodge complaints of misconduct.
"In issuing an unenforceable 'code of ethics' for the Supreme Court, John Roberts has flipped the American public a judicial middle finger. The code is a sham."
The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote to authorize subpoenas for Harlan Crow, Leonard Leo, and Robin Arkley II as part of the panel’s Supreme Court ethics investigation, Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced.
Punchbowl News: “This is a significant escalation of the committee’s probe.“
#DianneFeinstein, centrist stalwart of the Senate, dies at 90
A trailblazer for women in politics, she led the Intelligence Committee and helped mold the federal bench. Amid health setbacks, she faced calls to resign.
In May, Chief Justice Roberts announced that, "I am committed to making certain that we as a court adhere to the highest standards of conduct...I am confident there are ways to do that...."
So, how's it going?
As of last Thursday, Justice Kavanaugh stated, "We are continuing to work on those issues..."
How hard is it to apply the same ethical standards to Supreme Court justices as apply to every other federal judge? Which justices are holding up reform?
Back in May, Chief Justice Roberts announced that, "I am committed to making certain that we as a court adhere to highest standards of conduct...I am confident there are ways to do that...."
In the 3rd part of this 3-part series on the #SupremeCourt, I talk about the recent reports of ethical violations by four of the Justices, & three actions you can do to help fix this situation.
As Jonathan Weiler says, "[F]rom his early days on the Court, [John] Roberts has been arguing that efforts to achieve greater racial balance in society are either themselves a form of discrimination or have passed their expiration date, or both."
This is a life mission for John Roberts, to gut civil rights legislation and initiatives.
At what point, one wonders, did Mr. Roberts realize he had been given this mission?
How does a white heterosexual man, a Harvard graduate, come to the realization that he's doing an honorable and good thing to try to force an entire democratic society to deny that rank racism is embedded in its institutions and plays a key role in the lives of those citizens? When he himself has such astonishing privilege, and uses it not to pursue the good but to pursue the opposite?
"Among the most notable new features of Chief Justice John Roberts’s Court is a willingness to insert itself into matters traditionally reserved to the legislative or executive branches, substituting its own judgment for that of Congress or federal agencies.
This is a particularly troubling development for any democracy."
"Our system is supposed to function by way of majority, elected rule—and not via edicts from a star chamber. Interference in the legislative or executive process is rightfully viewed by many as a power grab, especially when the Court’s decisions are doing the heavy lifting for the party out of power. It is a form of minority rule, and it is antithetical to democratic principles."
"The larger story of this term has been one of ethical rot and official indifference. … Whatever Chief Justice Roberts thinks of their behavior, it is plain that judicial independence on his court has come to mean judicial license: a freedom to do and say what a justice pleases."
"At a time when the justices have lost the public’s trust, Chief Justice Roberts has reaffirmed that they will continue to serve as their own judges and jury, their own inspectors general and ombudsmen. They will ask themselves for leniency, and are sure to bestow it. Justice Alito brought this home in his op-ed: There is no appearance of impropriety, because he tells us there is not. Justice Alito has cleared Justice Alito."