Supreme Court Corruption (Formerly Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire) (1 Viewer)

[cuddlemonkey]

It seems that a billionaire GOP donor has spent a small fortune on vacations for Ginni and Clarence Thomas.

Clarence Thomas Secretly Accepted Luxury Trips From Major GOP Donor

Island-hopping on a superyacht. Private jet rides around the world. The undisclosed gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the Supreme Court. “It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this,” says one former judge.

www.propublica.org

 

[DaveXA]

Fear of unintentionally making things worse should never keep us from trying to make things better. Things need to be made better with the Supreme Court. The current system is flawed and is vulnerable of leading to an authoritarian takeover of the US.

I'm not necessarily afraid of it, I just think that there are a lot of issues to consider with more justices and at the core, the reasoning is going to ultimately be framed as a politically driven decision. Every nomination will be purely partisan where you'll have a hard time getting any sort of consensus to select a new justice.

I think the wiser course is to address and tackle the ethics issues and add term limits. Maybe 10-15 years. That way you're still rotating justices every couple of years and it's not a constant shuffling with 13 or more justices.

It wasn't too many years ago when a judge who had a good reputation and well like by both sides of the aisle would get 90+ votes. That would never happen in today's climate and adding more justices is more fuel to the fire.

I think it's easier to imagine 2 justices flipping to 5-4 than adding more justices where you'll need cooperation to expand the number. The Democrats would need 60 votes to expand the number of justices, I think.

 

[MT15]

Maybe Leonard Leo is feeling some heat?

 

[MT15]

 

[MT15]

Excuses, excuses. Thomas should resign in disgrace

 

[MT15]

Empty-headed ninny, she is.

 

[MT15]

I hope the Senate Finance Committee or Judiciary will subpoena tax returns and delineate the actual flow of dollars to Clarence Thomas. He needs to go.

 

[zztop]

I'm shocked by his refusal

Justice Alito rejects Senate Democrats' call to step aside from an upcoming Supreme Court case

Justice Samuel Alito is rejecting demands from Senate Democrats that he step aside from an upcoming Supreme Court case because of his interactions with one of the lawyers, in a fresh demonstration of tensions over ethical issues.

apnews.com

 

[zztop]

more totally normal things not to be concerned about

Ginni Thomas founded a nonprofit with funding from Harlan Crow weeks ahead of the Citizens United ruling to advance conservative causes

Thomas' lawyer filed paperwork to begin the process of establishing the nonprofit two months before the Citizens United ruling, Politico reported.

www.businessinsider.com

 

[GrandAdmiral]

This right here. And it doesn't just apply to the likes of Thomas...

But many Black people don’t despise Thomas because he’s a conservative. They reject him because they say he’s a “hypocrite” and a “traitor” who hurts his own people to help himself.

Georgia State Senator Nikki Merritt is one of them. The Democrat says recent revelations about Thomas benefiting from wealthy White benefactors validated what she and others have been saying about the justice for years. She was one of several Black members of the Georgia Senate who opposed a bill last year to erect a statue in honor of Thomas.

Merritt says that many Black people don’t have a problem with conservatives or Republicans. The late Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice both served in Republican presidential administrations as Black conservatives. Both are well-respected in the Black community.

But Thomas, she says, is something else. Merritt says he actively hurts his own people by consistently voting to weaken voting rights and helping to overturn Roe v. Wade, a decision she says disproportionately hurts poor women of color.

“Justice Thomas likes to talk about the myth of pulling himself up by his bootstraps and being resilient, yet he’s benefited from handouts from these White conservatives who have supported his privileged lifestyle,” she says. “That makes him a traitor and a hypocrite in my eyes.”

Analysis: Here’s why many Black people despise Clarence Thomas. (It’s not because he’s a conservative.) | CNN Politics

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has spent his career lecturing Black people about living off of welfare from the government. But it turns out he’s apparently done very well with handouts from the rich and powerful – a fact that has not gone unnoticed by the Black community.

www.cnn.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

For what it’s worth
==============
A psychology professor who testified that she was sexually assaulted by Supreme CourtJustice Brett Kavanaugh during his explosive confirmation hearings has written a memoir.

Christine Blasey Ford will share “riveting new details” about the lead-up to her 2018 Senate testimony and the overwhelming backlash that saw her flee her home after receiving death threats, publisher St Martin’s Press said in a statement.

One Way Back, due for release in March, will also chronicle how her “faith in humanity” was restored.

“I never thought of myself as a survivor, a whistleblower, or an activist before the events in 2018,” Ms Ford said in a statement released through the publisher.……..

Brett Kavanaugh accuser to release memoir about her Senate testimony

Christine Blasey Ford was thrust into the national spotlight after coming forward with allegations that Mr Kavanaugh had assaulted her at a high school party in Maryland in 1982

www.independent.co.uk

 

[superchuck500]

 

[coldseat]

And Republican voters who are outside the 1%, that continue to support and vote for this corruption wonder why we have a government for the corporations and not for the people.

 

[MT15]

Media soft-peddling the corruption:

 

[Optimus Prime]

Guess this can go here
==================
The FBI has interviewed several individuals who have alleged they were abused by members of the People of Praise (PoP), a secretive Christian sect that counts conservative supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett as a lifelong member, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The individuals were contacted following a years-long effort by a group called PoP Survivors, who have called for the South Bend-based sect to be investigated for leaders’ handling of sexual abuse allegations.

The body, which has 54 members, has alleged that abuse claims were routinely mishandled or covered up for decades in order to protect the close-knit faith group.

It is not clear whether the FBI has launched a formal investigation into the PoP.

The Guardian has confirmed that at least five individuals were contacted by the FBI and four gave detailed accounts to agents of abusive behavior they allegedly experienced or witnessed.

Individuals spoke to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity and said they believed the FBI interviews were part of an initial inquiry……

A PoP handbook states that members are expected to be obedient to male authorities, or group heads, and are expected to give 5% of their earnings to the group.

Heads are influential decision-makers in members’ lives, weighing in on issues ranging from dating to marriage, and determining where members should live.

After a waiting period, members agree to a covenant – a lifelong vow – to support each other “financially and materially and spiritually”.……

Justice Barrett’s membership in PoP was first widely publicized in a 2017 New York Times report, which noted that Barrett’s membership in the “tightly knit Christian group” never came up in a Senate hearing to confirm her as an appeals court judge.

In 2020, following Barrett’s nomination to the supreme court by then president Donald Trump, the Guardian and other media outlets delved deeper into PoP, including reports about how some former members, and some children who grew up in the group, had been abused by other members of the sect.

Some but not all members who have since been critical of the PoP believe it is a cult, given the amount of control the group exerts over people’s lives.

Barrett’s membership in the group was not raised in her confirmation hearing for the high court, but media outlets reported on her role as a handmaidand that PoP had erased all mentions and photos of Barrett from its website.

The Guardian also reported that Barrett and her husband, Jesse Barrett, had lived together in the home of a key PoP founder, Kevin Ranaghan, before they were married.

It was around this time that a Facebook group of PoP survivors was established, as former members of the sect, and adults who had been raised in it, began sharing stories about their experiences of alleged abuse, and how those abuse claims were allegedly mishandled.

Multiple members have said that PoP’s prominence in the news triggered their desire to share stories, but that they were not seeking to target Barrett in raising their experiences.…….

FBI interviewed individuals who accuse Amy Coney Barrett faith group of abuse

Revealed: individuals contacted by agency gave detailed accounts of abusive behavior they allegedly experienced or witnessed

www.theguardian.com

 

[MT15]

Wherein Leonard Leo asserts that he is above the law.

 

[Optimus Prime]

The conservative supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett has said she and her colleagues should be subject to a code of ethics, following a series of scandals that have dented public confidence in the nation’s highest bench.

The Donald Trump appointee was speaking on Monday at a sometimes raucous discussion at the University of Minnesota law school, the New York Times reported.

Accusations of malfeasance and corruption have swirled around two associate justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, for months, prompting calls from legal watchdogs and others for their resignation, or for Chief Justice John Roberts to force their recusal from certain cases.

Barrett, speaking in Minneapolis to the law professor Robert Stein, a former chief operating officer of the American Bar Association, said she now favored the implementation of ethics rules similar to those that govern less senior members of the judiciary.

“It would be a good idea for us to do it, particularly so that we can communicate to the public exactly what it is that we are doing in a clearer way,” she said.

“All nine justices are very committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct.”

Her words about her colleagues’ morals echo those of Roberts, who insisted in May at an awards dinner in Washington DC that ensuring the panel exhibited exemplary conduct was his biggest priority.

“I want to assure people that I am committed to making certain that we as a court adhere to the highest standards of conduct,” he said.

But while he told attendees at that dinner that the justices were “continuing to look at the things we can do to give practical effect to that commitment”, no formal proposal or guidelines have emerged.

And while Barrett said on Monday she wanted to see such a code, she also said she could not offer a timeline, or any details of what it might contain.……

Amy Coney Barrett calls ethics code for scandal-hit supreme court ‘a good idea’

Conservative justice nominated by Trump offers no timeline for implementation or details of what code would contain

www.theguardian.com

 

[DaveXA]

The conservative supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett has said she and her colleagues should be subject to a code of ethics, following a series of scandals that have dented public confidence in the nation’s highest bench.

The Donald Trump appointee was speaking on Monday at a sometimes raucous discussion at the University of Minnesota law school, the New York Times reported.

Accusations of malfeasance and corruption have swirled around two associate justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, for months, prompting calls from legal watchdogs and others for their resignation, or for Chief Justice John Roberts to force their recusal from certain cases.

Barrett, speaking in Minneapolis to the law professor Robert Stein, a former chief operating officer of the American Bar Association, said she now favored the implementation of ethics rules similar to those that govern less senior members of the judiciary.

“It would be a good idea for us to do it, particularly so that we can communicate to the public exactly what it is that we are doing in a clearer way,” she said.

“All nine justices are very committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct.”

Her words about her colleagues’ morals echo those of Roberts, who insisted in May at an awards dinner in Washington DC that ensuring the panel exhibited exemplary conduct was his biggest priority.

“I want to assure people that I am committed to making certain that we as a court adhere to the highest standards of conduct,” he said.

But while he told attendees at that dinner that the justices were “continuing to look at the things we can do to give practical effect to that commitment”, no formal proposal or guidelines have emerged.

And while Barrett said on Monday she wanted to see such a code, she also said she could not offer a timeline, or any details of what it might contain.……

Amy Coney Barrett calls ethics code for scandal-hit supreme court ‘a good idea’

Conservative justice nominated by Trump offers no timeline for implementation or details of what code would contain

www.theguardian.com

That's pretty interesting coming from Barrett.

 

[Saint by the Bay]

That's pretty interesting coming from Barrett.

Anyone with even a single drop of intellectual integrity can see how screwed up this situation is. Say what you want about ACB, but she's a true believer. I'm not surprised of all the right-wingers on the court she'd be the one to agree with an ethics code.