We have yet another clown show in DC….we have the Congress and the parties and now more from SCOTUS.
Just like the rest of the government SCOTUS has become a sh*t show….with all the corruption and favoritism in the court there has been calls for some sort of reform and the judges decided they would clean their chamber up…..which is as hilarious as it could possibly get.
The Supreme Court released a code of conduct for justices Monday to address what it described as a “misunderstanding” about ethics. A statement signed by all nine justices said that the rules and principle are not new, “for the most part,” because the court “has long had the equivalent of common law ethics rules.” “The absence of a Code, however, has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the Justices of this Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules,” the statement said. “To dispel this misunderstanding, we are issuing this Code, which largely represents a codification of principles that we have long regarded as governing our conduct.”
The code, released amid pressure from Democrats to reform court ethics, contains what the Washington Post describes as “broadly worded” sections on issues including fundraising, political activity, and financial activities including the acceptance of gifts. It does not, however, include any means of enforcement, with compliance left entirely up to the justices themselves, the AP reports. A poll last month found that public confidence in the court was close to an all-time low following multiple reports on ethical issues. Many reports looked at Justice Clarence Thomas’ undisclosed gifts from wealthy donors, but questions were also raised about Justices Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor, the AP notes.
“The justices are clearly reacting to recent public criticism by formally adopting this code,” says CNN Supreme Court analyst Steve Vladeck. “But the key is what’s missing: how are these rules going to be enforced, and by whom? Even the most rigorous ethical and financial reporting requirements won’t mean very much if there’s no one monitoring the justices’ compliance and no pushback when those rules are violated.” The Post notes that a commentary released with the code suggests the court is still trying to resolve some issues. It states that Chief Justice John Roberts has asked court officers “to undertake an examination of best practices, drawing in part on the experience of other federal and state courts.”
Seriously?
No way to enforce the “Code”….I expect these political hacks to try and head off criticism…..but this is just a cruel joke.
Do we really believe that these crooked hacks will abide by the code and police themselves?
Not in my wheelhouse.
Nice try you garden slugs….now try doing something for the country and resign go home to waste away and let the country move on.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
Their new code is the same as their tenure…a lifetime appointment of bullshit and right-wing corruption.
Yes indeed….it is a joke at best. chuq
Welcome to my world! This is the kind of crap that we’ve been dealing with here in Wisconsin with the state supreme court for at least a couple of decades now. We had one GOP backed justice who, according to an investigation, violated campaign law. But because the WSSC “polices” itself, the conservative majority of justices ruled that “there’s nothing to see here”, and made the charges go away. Nothing was ever done. Another GOP backed justice allegedly tried to strangle one of his fellow justices. Again there was enough evidence to support bringing charges against him. And the GOP majority on the court backed him and nothing happened. Another GOP backed justice was regularly hearing cases presented by a law firm that had done tens of thousands of dollars of “free” legal work for him and refused to recuse himself. There have been dozens of cases where GOP aligned members of the WSSC refused to recuse themselves when hearing cases which they were involved personally in some way.
Now we have a progressive justice just elected to the court this year and, well, we can’t have that, of course, so the state legislature tried to impeach her before she was even sworn into office. They even formed a secret panel supposedly made up of three former WSSC justices (all “conservatives”, of course) to try to find something, anything, they could use to impeach her. When the legislature was sued because forming secret tribunals like this is blatantly, outrageously illegal, the response was “Oh, it’s not secret. Not at all”. Okay, then tell us who’s on the panel. “Oh, we can’t tell you that for ‘reasons’.” So it’s a secret, not secret tribunal? Somehow? Sort of?
Didn’t do them any good. Apparently their “not at all secret but we aren’t going to tell you who’s on the panel or what they’re investigating” Star Chamber didn’t find anything so now they’re going to appeal to the US supreme court for — well, no one seems what they’re going to appeal to SCOTUS for, exactly.
Isn’t this fun?
Damn! I thought Mississippi was messed up….chuq
Hey, I just did some analysis on the Iran Assassination claims, also yeah America’s gonna have an Ayatollah (since that’s what the guy in Iran is, their equivalent of the Supreme Court) and it’s all Trump’s fault. But then just because Secularism is the Tradition of our Nation, does that mean we should move over for whiny Christian extremists? (sarcasm)
Those are just as bad in my book chuq
Your Supreme Courts seem to have far too much power. They need to be reigned in.
Best wishes, Pete.
Many of us have been saying that for decades….sadly few listen chuq
I suppose past indiscretions will be dealt with severely – not!
Nothing in this makes them accountable….so it is worthless in my book. chuq
Exactly. As long as the indiscretions of justices like Thomas’s can be regarded as acceptable and as less than impeachable and sufficient for his removal from the court, the SCOTUS will continue to be regarded poorly. The corruption is so typical of entities that have no check on their excesses.
Exactly and this is what we get when some radical group like the Federalist Society picks the judges for us. chuq
Supreme Court Justices should not get lifetime positions. People live a lot longer nowadays and nothing changes for until all the old white men die,.
I agree and as with Congress the mandatory retirement age should be 65 chuq