Senate Democrats render a verdict on Supreme Court ethics
Source: Politico
12/21/2024 07:01 AM EST
Senate Democrats wrapped up their extensive investigation of Supreme Court justices’ ethics practices Saturday, issuing a report blasting two conservative justices for accepting expensive gifts from wealthy benefactors and slamming Chief Justice John Roberts for a lackadaisical response to ethical lapses by his colleagues.
“Now more than ever before, as a result of information gathered by subpoenas, we know the extent to which the Supreme Court is mired in an ethical crisis of its own making,” outgoing Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin said in a statement. “Whether failing to disclose lavish gifts or failing to recuse from cases with apparent conflicts of interest, it’s clear that the justices are losing the trust of the American people at the hands of a gaggle of fawning billionaires.”
The report levels its most strident criticism at Justice Clarence Thomas, alleging that he received gifts totaling millions of dollars since he joined the high court in 1991. “The number, value, and extravagance by Justice Thomas have no comparison in modern American history,” the report says.
Many of the trips, including one Thomas and his wife Ginni Thomas took by yacht and private jet in Indonesia in 2019 as a guest of billionaire developer Harlan Crow, were unearthed by ProPublica last year. However, the Senate Democrats claimed credit for turning up two previously unknown trips Crow treated Thomas to closer to home in New York, including one by yacht.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/21/senate-democrats-render-a-verdict-on-supreme-court-ethics-00195790
Link to REPORT (PDF viewer) - https://drive.google.com/file/d/11bznvFN1RwlLT9bZR_p_DntOrY1njKYz/view
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Last edited Sat Dec 21, 2024, 01:00 PM - Edit history (1)
is so that they can draft legislation to "fix a problem". Reports like this provide justification for the language in any legislation and can uncover any loopholes in existing law.
Of course the passage of that legislation is dependent on who can get the majority of the votes to pass it and only having had a "majority" of 51 votes (but it was more like a minority of 49 with Manchin and Sinema) and no control over the House, then what was left was to build the foundation for when we are back in the position to enact new laws.
We could go "extra-judicial" and drag the asses Alito and Thomas and their wives out of their homes and throw them in prison to "show balls", but THAT is not "democracy"... 
