43 House Members Slam Justices Scalia, Thomas, And Alito For Ethics Scandals

[Ian David]

Source: Think Progress

43 House Members Slam Justices Scalia, Thomas, And Alito For Ethics Scandals

As ThinkProgress previously reported, Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT) circulated a letter calling upon the House Judiciary Committee’s leadership to hold a hearing his bill ending the Supreme Court’s immunity to key judicial ethics laws. Murphy’s bill is inspired by numerous recent ethics scandals involving the Court’s most conservative members:

There have been alarming reports of justices – most notably Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito – attending political events and using their position to fundraise for organizations. These activities would be prohibited if the justices were required to abide by the Judicial Conference Code of Conduct, which currently applies to all other federal judges. <...>

Recent revelations about Justice Thomas accepting tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts from individuals and organizations who often have an interest in matters before the courts calls into question the Court’s impartiality. Canon 4D of the Code of Conduct incorporates regulations providing that “ judicial officer or employee shall not accept a gift from anyone who is seeking official action from or doing business with the court.” Yet Justice Thomas received a gift valued at $15,000 from an organization that had a brief pending before his Court at the very moment they gave him the gift. Incidents such as these undermine the integrity of the entire judiciary, and they should not be allowed to continue.

Forty-three Members of Congress have now joined Murphy’s call to end the Supreme Court’s ethics immunity.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/09/09/315555/members-take-on-scotus/

---

[Liberal Veteran]

1. One wonders where they were when we actually held the House?

[Autumn]

2. They had to wait until

their hands were tied. It's all part of the game. It's not like any of this is new. That leads me to believe they are all sound and fury and not a fucking drop of rain.

[The Doctor.]

4. It's the Dog and Pony show.

Too many people have bought fully into it.

[SammyWinstonJack]

34. [phone]

:thumbsup:

[caseymoz]

68. Or it's come to a point where jaded politicians are shocked?

And perhaps the Citizens United decision has something to do with their making this much money? There has to be a bit of envy involved in the outrage, too. I mean, if the Justices can take direct bribes, why can't I?

The trio ought to be impeached before they cause even further damage.

[harun]

77. +1

[Deep13]

8. +1

[McCamy Taylor]

14. Part out oif power always tears down. Party in power writes legislation. That is how the system

works. If you want if any other way get a constitutional amendment to change it to a parliamentary style of government.

Note that the GOP is much better at tearing down, because of their dualistic nature. Dems, with the big rainbow umbrella have a harder time picking someone to attack.

[ThomCat]

24. That is not true.

The party in power is perfectly capable of passing reform legislation that tears down any part of the government that needs to be torn down and rebuilt.

There is absolutely Nothing anywhere that says that the part in power is the only party that can write legislation. If that was true, republicans would not have been able to dominate when Bush was in the white house but they were the minority party. They had no problem writing and passing legislation because there is no such limit.

Getting rid of people in government, for example, because of corruption, is legislation that usually requires a super-majority. It doesn't depend on who is in power, but it's almost certainly not going to happen without people from both parties cooperating.

[Bluenorthwest]

58. How is seeking to put the Supremes under the same rules as

other federal judges an 'attack'? How does it 'tear down'? Ethical standards would 'tear down' a part of government?
And both Parties can and do write legislation under the Constitution.

[fascisthunter]

87. I'll wait too for an answer

[66 dmhlt]

15. Well, they hadn't seen SCOTUS's Official Portrait yet

[SusanaMontana41]

23. Now that's a photo!

I'm laughing but is laughter appropriate?

[Atman]

37. Isn't that a scene from "Idiocracy?"

:)

[liberalmike27]

67. The

Supreme Corporation.

[AlbertCat]

21. One wonders where they were when we actually held the House?

Good question.

But unlike Autumn's claim that there's nothing new... there is something new. Not that this sort of thing hasn't been going on for a long while, but the Thomas financial statement "mistake" and his wife's overt political activity we not news when the Dems were in charge. Now is good timing in a way to bring it up. It may go nowhere now, but it will be easier to bring up later if Dems ever get in charge again.

[AndyTiedye]

46. We Still Would Never Have Had the Votes to Remove Them

We couldn't get 2/3 in the Senate if Scalia and Thomas were caught eating babies.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. I'm loving this Friday news dump day!

[madamesilverspurs]

5. Next,

will they all be shown to have tweeted nasty pictures of themselves?

[SoapBox]

6. ...dirty, dirty, dirty.

All ethics have crumbled, with these GOPBagger types.

It's all for them...and it does NOT matter how rotten or crooked or illegal it is...for them, it's A-OK.



I just posted this to another site...I still feel like I'm shaking:

"Previously I've noted that I've had yelling matches with some frack'n crazies at my local post office...they have all kinds of Obama-as-Hitler stuff, LaRouche, Glass-Steagall (with all kinds of foreign looking corporate logos and initials) with fliers on an ice cream type cart.

So today, they were outside a Wells Fargo in San Pedro, CA...a white guy and a black woman. They were loudly calling out "Impeach Obama".

This time I went over there and asked questions...in a nutshell, within 2 minutes, they both started doing weird goo-goo baby talk...the woman started in on some kind of you are such a little girl...I asked her, politely and with PLEASE, to educate me on the corporate looking logos, who they were and where were they at. She started yelling that I was ordering her around...

Let me tell you...These people are terrifying. Period. Delusional? I'm just not sure...There is NO talking TO them at all. Creepier, there were at least 5 cars that honked and waved and thumb up...one care, with an older white couple stopped and asked how they could help to impeach Obama...

I went into the bank and complained...and said that I felt scared for my safety at their ATMs. They just looked at me said that they couldn't do anything...and that the police would not respond. I told them that the post office has gotten them moved, for "security". They all just sat there and starred...

...I feel sick to my stomach and ya know...I don't know where this country is headed.

fyi. "

[Iliyah]

This is different

because GOD backs them, don't y'know they are his favorites in the Supreme Court?

[Iliyah]

This is different

because GOD backs them, don't y'know they are his favorites in the Supreme Court?

[Iliyah]

7. This is different

because GOD backs them, don't y'know they are his favorites in the Supreme Court?

[la la]

40. those people are a combination of....

larouchies, birchers, truthers, teabaggers and nutziods. they hung around my little PO all the time, harassing people---i think the PO got sick of the complaints and i haven't seen them for a while---from what i understand, the lyndon larouche people are actually paying them to congregate and bother people....one of the young men actually drove up in a lexus one day---ack!

[tomg]

48. At first I thought you

were describing the right wing of the current supreme court until I realized you were responding to a post upthread.

[hue]

54. This is the Ayn Rand "philosophy" in a Nutter shell!

"It's all for them...and it does NOT matter how rotten or crooked or illegal it is...for them, it's A-OK."

[TxVietVet]

57. They had one Laoucher in front of our Post Office.

When black folks started confronting him, he got nasty. He's lucky someone called the cops. He's been here a couple of times. It's the same LaRouche bu$hit.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

66. It's not so much where we are headed. It's more pertinent to wonder where we are already.

We're late in curtailing the fascist creep.

[NICO9000]

83. Interesting that a black woman was one of the pair

I grew up in Torrance, and had many friends in San Pedro when I was a younger guy, so I'm familiar with the basic blue-collar town it is. Basically, the whole South Bay area has always been republican. All my dope-smoking teenage friends voted for Raygun and most of them have apparently become tea-baggers, according to a pal that's in touch with a lot of 'em on Facebook.

I agree that these are scary, frightened, none-too-sharp folks. The fact that they're impossible to have any kind of rational conversation with ("goo-goo baby talk?" Really?!!!), means you have to just write them off as wastes of skin. I realize that's probably not the best solution, but how else are you supposed to deal with absolutely crazy assholes?

[dotymed]

91. Many of us worked our ASS off for Obama.

Change...,Bullshit. President Obama has let corruption run unchecked. Not even spoken out, when he could have pointed out LOUDLY the corruption and set an example. Our country is headed into chaos.

[kestrel91316]

9. We could have impeached all 3. Well, but for the lack of some SPINES.

[Cosmocat]

53. Make no mistake, if it was the "liberal" members of the court

doing this shit, we would have already had hearings, it would have been THE news cycle for the better part of a year, and they likely would have been able to take at least one of them down ...

[baldguy]

10. They should all be impeached, removed from office & thrown in prison.

[bongbong]

11. Cue wingnut whinging in 3..2..1

"Poor poor pitiful us! We are the downtrodden! Our billionaire idols and commanders are POWERLESS in the face of ACORN & that totally-liberal media!"

[DeSwiss]

12. Dont dilly-dally around with 'em. IMPEACH THE BASTARDS!!! - K&R n/t

[Overseas]

42. Yes please.

[McCamy Taylor]

13. Good idea.

[Dragonfli]

16. K&R Purchased Supreme Court justices are the beginning of the end for our Democracy /nt

[primavera]

31. Maybe not

Considering how barking mad Scalia is, odds are the people purchasing him are saner than he is. Certainly they couldn't be any worse than he is naturally by himself.

[zippytheplatypus]

17. impeachment process for SCOTUS Justices

What is the process for removing a Justice from the Supreme Court? I'm far from educated in this type if thing but I would assume there would be some sort of mechanism for it in either the constitution or some mandate. This is the worst, scariest SC since Plessy v Ferguson. Who wants to start a pool on when that comes back too? If someone has a link I could use I'd appreciate it very much. Thanks

[MilesColtrane]

32. The process is the same as for impeaching a president or lower court judge.

An impeachment resolution is submitted to the House Judiciary Committee who decides by majority vote on a recommendation for submission to the entire House.

The House begins debate on the articles and takes a vote on each one separately. (They pass on a simple majority.)

[zippytheplatypus]

43. the house, yeesh..

Never mind. Omg we're fucked..

[zippytheplatypus]

18. impeachment process for SCOTUS Justices

What is the process for removing a Justice from the Supreme Court? I'm far from educated in this type if thing but I would assume there would be some sort of mechanism for it in either the constitution or some mandate. This is the worst, scariest SC since Plessy v Ferguson. Who wants to start a pool on when that comes back too? If someone has a link I could use I'd appreciate it very much. Thanks

[certainot]

19. this would be over quick if the left had 1000 coordinated radio stations reaching 50mil/week

[Divine Discontent]

63. yep! if the Left's billionaires would invest into media purchases, we could have some fair outlets

of finding this information out other than wire reports and liberal websites like DU! It's just sickening that real news gets little viewing...

[certainot]

65. actually, if the left stopped giving those stations a free speech free ride and

started shaming them and their local sponsors and the universities that endorse them by broadcasting sports on them and picketing them when their nationally coordinated blowhards threaten and lie about their reps and ideals, the stations themselves would have to start providing balance just to make payroll.

IMO after talking to some, in many blue communities many of the local sponsors will look for alternatives if they get enough complaints. and many more would if the universities looked for alts, citing inconsistencies with their 'mission statements'.

[dotymed]

94. Yes, or if THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE were REINSTATED. n/t

[BlueIdaho]

20. Lady Justice may be blind but These scoundrels

Are selling judgements by the pound. They should be rotting in a jail somewhere.

[JJW]

22. They don't see it that way

You see, to them a political bribe is free speech, protected by the first amendment. So it appears they must also think bribing judges is also free speech. And of course to give corporations first amendment (citizenship) rights, they had to define them as having person-hood.

[whathappened]

27. they use to

way back in time they use to tar and feather any fool who recieved a payoff

[chervilant]

74. Sociopaths

use all sorts of convoluted 'justifications' for their bad behaviors...

[bertman]

25. Agreed. Any judge receiving a "gift" or "contribution" from a party involved in a

case he/she is going to be judging is GUILTY OF CORRUPTION. The charge is BRIBERY.

But, hey, Rightwing justices can do whatever they want and our Democratic leaders act as if nothing is going on.

Disgusting.

REC.

[BillyJack]

26. K & R n/t

[BillyJack]

28. Deep down in their hearts somewhere.....and, yes, they have hearts....

don't they ever .......

:cry:

[bbgrunt]

29. wow. 43 out of 435.

[Hubert Flottz]

30. They see themselves as being above the law and

for all intents and purposes it looks like they are. They've even appointed a president. You can't get more political than that.

[MilesColtrane]

33. Nice move, but the House can't impeach these scumbags for a "high crime" if it wasn't a crime...

at the time.

I encourage the House to close this loophole, if they can get the votes.

[GreenStormCloud]

35. Meaningless. Nothing will happen.

They are on the bench for life and only a constitutional amendment or successful impeachment can change that. Neither of those has a snowball's chance in Hell.

[defendandprotect]

36. Safety in numbers, eh?

[stlsaxman]

38. The ever-awesome Congressman William "Lacy" Clay signed!!!

He and I went to grade-school together...

:bounce: :fistbump: :toast: :hi: :thumbsup: :headbang: :yourock:

[shanti]

39. it's about time?

:eyes:

[tblue]

41. Stinks to high heaven! Impeach!!!

They have perverted our justice system. Nothing about this is okay.

[samsingh]

44. these 'justices' thumb their nose's at justice

they have made themselves above the law.

were they Democrats, they would be in prison today.

[gunnergoz]

45. Voting in accordance to your stock portfolio

...is apparently not a problem if you are a Supreme Court Justice.

[polmaven]

76. Well,

not a CRIME, anyway.

[PurityOfEssence]

47. Scream louder and impeach

The Republicans would.

A justice may serve for life if that justice obeys the law.

There is a gentlemanly aspect to liberalism that causes one to give a bit of latitude to the other side; that is an alien and threatening concept to a conservative. If they don't like an elected official, they recall that official. The idea of having regular elections and then living with the results is a quaint concept embraced by the left (what's left of it) but never held by the rapacious reactionaries who see no give-and-take at all; for them, it's all take.

Why should we have any compunction about impeaching one of these made-for-life oracles? If they break the law, they should be hauled in front of the appropriate court and given their day. Permanent campaigning and constant upheaval are the legacy of the asshole entitled reactionaries, and they deserve a dose of their own medicine.

Clarence Thomas should be impeached in a show-trial to rival the best. He has clearly sold his influence and been the beneficiary of bribery. Alito and Roberts have grotesquely violated their confirmation pledges to not legislate from the bench: Citizens United took an isolated case to the extreme of sweeping aside all restrictions of campaign finance so no checks could ever exist on the avalanche of corporate power. Scalia is beyond expletives.

Impeach. They would...

[defendandprotect]

49. ... but Roberts wasn't unethical when he organized the fascist rally for Bush to STOP

the vote counting in Miami-Dade County -- more than 120,000 votes

that hadn't previously been counted.

Roberts played a primary role in the 2000 RW vote steal --


... and Clarence Thomas wasn't unethical in his harassment of Prof.

Anita Hill and other women who worked at the EEOC?

Thanks to Joe Biden, witnesses against Thomas -- almost a dozen -- were

never heard. It takes a pervert to do the dirty work for the RW.

[disndat]

62. Don't forget,

there was a huge protest by black men when Clarence Thomas's appointment to the Supreme Court seemed in jeopardy because of the Anita Hill testimony, so Biden and the Democratice leasership had to back down. Maybe the black men protest could have been organized by the RW.

[defendandprotect]

81. No -- Professor Hill is African American -- and certainly a number of the witnesses vs Thomas

were also African American --

And I recall a very prominent Judge -- unfortunately I don't recall his name, but

a man who should have been on the Supreme Court -- quickly called Thomas a "JUDAS"

for his decisions on the court -- and that Judge was African American.

African Ameicans -- like homosexuals -- understand much better and faster than "whites"

when things are happening which shouldn't be happening.


Certainly, Clarence's clever little refernce to "hi-tech lynching" was an effective

piece of propaganda -- which, btw, made no sense since his victims were also African

American -- quite a few of them, in fact -- and there were ONLY WHITE MALES ON THE

COMMITTEE LED BY JOE BIDEN -- !!

Either it was a DUAL "hi tech lynching" of two African Americans -- or it was NEITHER!


Meanwhile, Sen. Joe Biden LIED to Prof. Anita Hill's attorneys and her mentors -- and to

the witnesses -- and to the public when he assured us all that the witnesses -- beyond

Angela Wright -- would be heard. Many were prominent employees at the EEOC - one was

a speech writer for Thomas, as I recall. And they were to testify to Thomas' constant

sexual comments to females employed there -- often to the witnesses themselves.


During the late night -- Biden presented an African American male who was there to further

the concept of Prof. Anita Hill conducting herself as a sexually aggressive female --

to round out the outrageous suggestions made by the RW GOP Senators on the panel --

someday someone should replay all of that hearing!! -- but, at any rate, Biden let this

guy wander here and there in his testimony suggesting that Prof. Hill had been pressuring him

to date her -- practically stalking her -- but by 4am, the guy couldn't remember if Prof.

Hill had called him or if he had called her! It was an obvious stall -- and THEN BIDEN

SHUT DOWN THE HEARINGS WITHOUT CALLING THE RELEVANT WITNESSES!!

Had those witnesses been presented, Thomas' nomination would have been immediately over.


Nothing the Hill legal team could do about it at that point!

They had been betrayed and that was that -- and so was the public betrayed --

And thereby was Thomas -- an absolutely sexual pervert -- put on the Supreme Court!!



Biden can't be trusted -- then or now --

[DrunkenBoat]

50. k&r. So sick of these corrupt pigs that flout the law.

[KansDem]

85. Me, too

I wouldn't be surprised if they got their law degrees in Cracker Jack boxes...


Law degree inside!

[cui bono]

51. Call and write your Rep and ask her/him to do the same!!!

I would bet mine already has. Looking it up now...

Hm... he hasn't. Writing now!

[Frank Cannon]

52. Now go away, or they will taunt you a second time!

Too bad they can't REALLY do something about these crooks.

[GoCubsGo]

55. Funny how this is the only place where I heard this news.

Not funny in a "HaHa" way. But, can't say I am surprised that our "Liberal" media isn't even mentioning it.

[hue]

56. Well, better late than never...

even if nothing comes of this its better to attack on as many fronts as possible. Public awareness
especially for the up and coming first time voters is very important.

[A wise Man]

59. Its all about Judges and Politicians..

being "BRIBED"....AND GETTING AWAY WITH IT. We have nooooooo justice here in America anymore...if it were these people or things wouldn't get away with the BS thats going on in this country.

[CanonRay]

60. Only 10% signed the letter

43/435....that is a really sad commentary on the state of ethics in our government.

[No Elephants]

61. Shameful, shameful, shameful. Nothing "Supreme" about them. nt

.

[avaistheone1]

88. Defintely agree.

Unfortunately we all pay the price for the quality of justice in this country.

[The Wizard]

64. Too little too late

Where were they when the Democrats had the House?. The damage is done and may never be fixed, at least not in the lifetimes of anyone reading this.
They squandered their House majority with a 12 month debate over a crap health care bill without a public option. We have a government of, by and for the highest bidders.
The Democracy we were taught about in school is a myth. Maybe it always has been. The corporate feudalism is just in our faces now. They have no pretense about democracy any more. America is too busy watching reality TV to be bothered with civic responsibility.

[disndat]

69. As Churchill said-

Democracy is a messy form of government, but better than any other. Keep fighting. We now have WikiLeaks, Facebooks, and Twitter bringing revolution to the old orders.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

70. Keep fighting.

I'm with you all the way.

[DirkGently]

71. Now we actually have "activist judges," but oddly,no more conservative complaints.

[WillyT]

72. K & R !!!

:kick:

[lonestarnot]

73. Oh HELL YES!

Made my day! Thanks Ian David!

[leveymg]

75. KNR - INDICT Clarence Thomas.

Indict him. He committed a serious federal crime by falsifying sworn statements - he doesn't have to be impeached, just prosecute the perp.

[Uncle Joe]

78. I wish I could recommend this more than once.

Thanks for the thread, Ian David.

[russspeakeasy]

79. A total crock of shit. It runs in their local paper and shows

how tough they are...Nothing, absolutely nothing will be done; nothing will change...but they got their 15 minutes..:nuke:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

80. I know of no "ethics immunity" for the Supremes.

I thought they were just as responsible for following judicial ethics as any other judge.

When I was in law school and took Ethics, they hammered "appearance of impropriety" into us.

If it LOOKS wrong, it IS wrong.

[Marnie]

82. Better late than never.

Go for it and let's see if the Republican Party in an election will run against it.

[JohnWxy]

84. RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!

GREAT POST!!

[bertman]

86. Another 'sternly-worded letter'. Those poor justices must be quaking in their boots.

[Kablooie]

89. The Dems aren't serious about this. Its just campaigning.

If they were serious they would have done it a long time ago.

All of a sudden the Dems are attacking the Reps because of the election.
Once the election is over watch all their important progressive actions fade away to nothing.

Happens every time.

[wordpix]

92. you apparently don't know my rep, Chris Murphy

He is a fantastic rep and great guy, very smart with a law degree, fought for health care in our CT state senate, beat out on of the R's top Big Pharma/INsurance recipients when he came to Congress in 06---he's the real deal and believes everything he says and will back it and fight for it 100%.

[Kablooie]

93. Oh yeah? Let me tell you something...

I hope you are right and I an wrong.

[Deep13]

90. Needs to be in the judiciary committee. nt