Rep. Raskin: “the highest court in the land has the lowest ethical standards.”
https://www.msnbc.com/ayman-mohyeldin/watch/rep-raskin-the-highest-court-in-the-land-has-the-lowest-ethical-standards-211224645780
Rep. Raskin: “the highest court in the land has the lowest ethical standards.”
https://www.msnbc.com/ayman-mohyeldin/watch/rep-raskin-the-highest-court-in-the-land-has-the-lowest-ethical-standards-211224645780
19 comments
How did a symbol associated with Donald Trump’s election subversion efforts end up outside the home of a Supreme Court justice? MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin breaks down a New York Times report that’s raising fresh concerns over Justice Samuel Alito’s impartiality, and speaks to Congressman Jamie Raskin about the need for ethics reform at the nation’s highest court.May 19, 2024
We need to take back Congress so we can pass legislation to crack down on this corruption.
http://www.vote.org
To the great surprise of nobody.
If Jamie ever runs for President I’m gonna’ be first in line to vote for him, dude knows what’s up.
I agree with him that between Gini Thomas being a lobbyist, and Clarence Thomas taking cuts from billionaires, and the Alitos believing in Stop the Steal, and Brett Kavanaugh being Brett Kavanaugh, and all the rest, this court no longer holds any kind of legitimacy in the eyes of at least half the country.
The Supreme Court is supposed to be not just above *corruption,* they’re supposed to be above ***the appearance of corruption,*** that’s how important this judicial body is, that *appearances* ***alone*** are enough to undermine their power. And I’d argue that this court has more than failed at keeping up appearances.
When you have people that are appointed to a life-time position of ultimate legal authority, only overseen by a small handful of others just like you, it becomes clear to them very quickly that they are essentially free to do whatever they want with very little chance of repercussions or reprimand.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalMemes/s/2LOsg6pybK
Meanwhile this is happening elsewhere, talk about two completely different standards.
**Ethics Panel Cautions Judge in Trump Trial Over Political Donations**
A state ethics panel quietly dismissed a complaint last summer against the New York judge presiding over the criminal trial of Donald J. Trump, issuing a warning over small donations the judge had made to groups supporting Democrats, including the campaign of Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The judge, Juan M. Merchan, [donated a total of $35](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/31/nyregion/trump-trial-judge-juan-merchan.html) to the groups in 2020, including a $15 donation earmarked for the Biden campaign, and $10 to a group called “Stop Republicans.”
Political contributions of any kind are prohibited under state judicial ethics rules.
“Justice Merchan said the complaint, from more than a year ago, was dismissed in July with a caution,” the spokesman for the court system, Al Baker, said in a statement.
[https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/17/nyregion/trump-trial-judge-merchan-donations.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/17/nyregion/trump-trial-judge-merchan-donations.html)
Because we made them royalty and that has to change. And it probably will change, as soon as we have our Trump imperium throwing judges into jail willy-nilly.
It’s so frustrating that they lack integrity to this degree while wrapping themselves in the cross and flag as if they’re moral and self-less patriots serving the nation from their billionaire friends’ mansions that they helped fund with favorable treatment.
And zero accountability.
And near invincibility.
Not just “standards” but in practice too. Not just that they could, they are. The bar is low and they’re playing limbo.
This is objectively true.
Federal judges have ethics standards. Those standards don’t apply at all to SCOTUS. Why does the highest court have far lower standards?
SCOTUS only recently updated their “standards” and I put that in quotations because each Justice gets to decide for themselves what is ok. So Thomas decided it was ok to receive tens of millions of dollars of free vacations, private flights, private yacht rides, paid for houses for family etc. it’s a sham.
If Congress were to try to impose ethical standards, SCOTUS could simply rule them unconstitutional, just like how they decided the 2000 election for Bush because at least one of them (O’Connor for sure, it’s on the record) wanted a Republican to pick their successor.
Dems should be running **hard** on Thomas and Alito’s corruption. I don’t think some Dems get just what a guaranteed winner slam dunk it is. Others are probably wary to do so because of institutionalism, which I respect. But I do not respect those two men and neither does anybody else.
Who better to represent “the Deep State” than two people who are unelected, have evidently boundless power, take giant cartoon bags of money from billionaires, and decided that your voice shouldn’t count if you’re not backed by dark money?
The way the general squish-brained non-politics following public thinks of DC corruption/”the swamp” is not a partisan thing, because people who don’t follow the news closely, although they will tend to vote pretty consistently for one party (usually for whom their friends and family do), do not perceive that as something that goes along party lines. Because they’re pretty hazy on what the parties represent in the first place. If Biden attacked the court, they wouldn’t think, “why’s he attacking his own side?” and they wouldn’t think “he’s just being partisan,” they’d think “Hey maybe Biden does give a shit.”
I would be careful not to adopt any of Trump’s language about “the swamp” or “Deep State” or anything, because I don’t think it should be legitimized, but there is a way to attack these guys that has no political downside and a ton of upside.
On a related note, I really think Biden should yell at Powell to cut rates. It can even be Kayfabe, he can call Powell ahead of time and tell him not to sweat it. But pointing the finger for high interest rates at somebody else is an obvious choice, especially when, you know, somebody else *did* do it.
By failing to impeach Alito , Thomas – the senate exhibits lower ethical standards.
We should’ve seen this coming. It was foolish to think that you could give people a lifetime appointment and no concrete way of holding them accountable, and think it was going to go well. The president and Congress are accountable to the voters. The Supreme Court is accountable to absolutely no one. That is textbook risk of corruption.
Congress needs to pass a law making them the official governors of SCOTUS ethics.
Hell there should be a law that Congress can overrule any split SCOTUS decisions with a majority in the house and 60 votes in the senate. Something like scotus decisions are only veto-proof if they’re decided with 7 or more justices.
I’m happy someone in such a high office said that publicly and in such a blunt way.
The SCOTUS sucks.
I mean, they don’t have *any* ethical standards. That’s sort of the problem.
I dunno how we’d be able to introduce something like that though. I don’t believe Congress could pass a law mandating minimum ethical standards. I imagine it would have to be an amendment.
How are the ethical standards in the lower courts if the highest one has low standards?