Category: Supreme Court

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Donald Trump Joe Biden Supreme Court

Dark Brandon Supremely Trolls The Former Guy When Donnie Takes Credit For A Court Ruling

In a desperate attempt to make sure that right-wing evangelical voters don’t abandon him in the 2024 presidential race, failed and indicted former president Donald Trump is trying to let the world know that it was his three appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, an issue that is likely to cost Republicans millions of votes in next year’s general election, especially among independent voters.

Trump was goaded into making a statement on the SCOTUS decision after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a six-week ban on abortion in the Sunshine State telling reporters, “I signed the bill. I was proud to do it. He (Trump) won’t answer whether he would sign it or not.”

That drew a sharp response from Trump on his failing Truth Social site, where he wrote:

“After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the ‘shock’ of everyone, and for the first time put the Pro Life movement in a strong negotiating position over the Radicals that are willing to kill babies even into their 9th month, and beyond. Without me there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever is finally agreed to. Without me the pro Life movement would have just kept losing. Thank you President TRUMP!!!”

Of course, two Republicans trying to be more extreme than the other on the issue of a woman’s right to decide what to do with her body is exactly what Democrats are hoping will be foremost in the minds of voters when they go to cast their ballots. If it is, the GOP nominee is likely toast and President Joe Biden will be reelected.

Trump’s post led Biden’s Twitter account to make a reply that was clearly meant to troll Trump and pin the title of abortion extremist on the former guy.

“That’s about as clear as it gets. Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are responsible for killing Roe v. Wade. And if you vote for them, they’ll go even further.”

Yes, it seems that Dark Brandon is indeed back, and he’s ready for Trump, DeSantis, or whatever clown the GOP winds up nominating.

 

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Corruption Supreme Court

Democrats Have Plenty Of Options For Dealing With Corrupt Judges – Here’s Some Of Them

While the scandal surrounding Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas continues to expand, there have been new calls for Congress to do something (anything!) as a way of punishing Thomas and making sure a justice never again engages in such unethical behavior.

But what can Congress do? Well, quite a lot, based on what the Constitution allows, as explained in an incredibly informative article in The Washington Post from Jesús Rodríguez, who explains there’s an “arsenal of tactics at their disposal to police the Supreme Court.”

They could threaten to drain the court’s budget during its yearly review. They could urge the Department of Justice to appoint a special counsel to investigate potential charges. They could consolidate support for impeaching a member of the bench, as some members of the House have unsuccessfully tried to do with respect to Thomas.

Or Congress could do what the Constitution specifies it should do: Pass legislation.

On Tuesday, an eagle-eyed photographer captured an image of notes belonging to Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) that suggested that Feinstein could return as soon as next week — in which case the committee could move legislation to the Senate floor more quickly. (Any bill would face steep odds in the GOP-controlled House.)

There’s also the path that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and his colleague in the House, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) have done: Refer the matter to another official body that has the power to bring Thomas to heel:

(Whitehouse and Johnson) sent a letter urging the Judicial Conference of the United States, the agency charged with administering the courts, to refer Thomas to the attorney general for investigation. A top official in the conference forwarded the letter to an internal committee for further action.

Something has to be done. All it takes is political will and a desire to make sure the highest court in the country doesn’t become a laughingstock.

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GOP Supreme Court WTF?!

Ted Cruz: Democrats Only Hate Clarence Thomas Because ‘He’s A Black Man’

If you thought you’d heard all of the absurd defenses that can possibly be offered up in the vain attempt to suggest that Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas didn’t do anything unethical when he accepted free trips worth tens of thousands of dollars from a Republican megadonor, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested today that it’s all due to racism on the part of Democrats.

Appearing on “Sunday Futures” with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Cruz had this to say:

“We know what Justice Thomas did wrong. He’s been one of the greatest Supreme Court justices ever to serve on the court. He has been a principal constitutionalist,and the left despises him; Democrats hate Justice Thomas, and they have the special degree of hate for him because he’s a Black man.”

“And their view is that African-American is not allowed to be a conservative is not allowed to disagree with left-wing orthodoxy,” he added.

According to Cruz, some of the liberals on the high court had also accepted trips, but he conveniently neglected to mention any names, probably because he was lying.

“They’re not looking at any of the Democrat justice. They’re not looking at any other judges. This is a political smear job directed at Clarence Thomas because he is an extraordinary constitutionalist.”

Ted Cruz wants us to believe that questioning the ethics of a justice on the Supreme Court is racist. So if the question was about Amy Coney Barrett, would that mean it was sexism? Interesting to see how quickly Republicans play the race card when they have no actual defense for one of their right-wing heroes.

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Supreme Court

Clarence Thomas’ Attempted Cover-Up Of His Ethical Lapses Is Likely To Lead To His Downfall – Here’s How 

There was a phrase that entered the political lexicon during the Watergate scandal that eventually led to the resignation of Richard Nixon: It’s not the scandal, it’s the cover-up.

That may well be the case when applied to Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, who is currently embroiled in a scandal of his own creation by accepting fancy trips and accommodations from a billionaire Republican donor, as was first reported by ProPublica earlier this month.

Thomas has attempted to downplay the entire matter, and it would appear that Chief Justice John Roberts has no interest in pursing the matter, even though not doing so threatens the integrity of the entire Supreme Court and its nine justices.

So while it may seem right now that Thomas is in the clear, Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics notes in an op-ed he wrote for MSNBC, that Thomas’ continued efforts to pull a screen down on his actions is a direct threat to him.

Thomas’ actions place him in potential legal jeopardy, and further undermine the Supreme Court’s legitimacy in the eyes of a public that has become increasingly skeptical of its ability to act as an apolitical arbiter of the law.

That’s where you can see the parallel to Nixon, Bookbinder continues:

That’s a lesson that the country learned from the Watergate scandal. The revelation that some Nixon campaign employees broke into the Democratic Party headquarters didn’t cause a generation of Americans to lose their faith in government. Time and again the cover-up is what ultimately causes the downfall.

If the Supreme Court is to have any legitimacy whatsoever (according to recent polls, public confidence in the high court is at an all-time low), it will have to try and police itself, and that means that Thomas’ days on the court of final appeal are numbered.

This is poison for the Supreme Court. It is an institution built on a foundation of public trust: It does not have the power of the purse or the authority to enforce the laws that it interprets. Credibility is its currency. And that foundation of credibility is already eroding. Thomas has an ethical duty, and he failed to live up to it. As a result, he has caused greater harm to himself, his legacy and the Supreme Court as an institution than disclosing his conduct would have done. And in doing so he learned the same lesson that many before him have been forced to learn: Honesty may be painful or uncomfortable, but the alternative is worse. And once again, our democracy may end up paying dearly for that lesson.

Justice Thomas needs to resign as soon as possible. Every day he remains on the court will only serve to further degrade our belief in the independence and integrity of the American judicial system.

Categories
Abuse of Power Justice Department Supreme Court

Clarence Thomas Is Now A Step Closer To Being Criminally Referred To The DOJ

Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas is a step closer to being criminally referred the U.S. Department of Justice for expensive trips and other perks he received from a top Republican donor, some of which were valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Last week, ProPublica revealed the connections between Thomas and billionaire megadonor Harlan Crow.

One of the trips Thomas took was to Indonesia.

IN LATE JUNE 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef.

If Thomas had chartered the plane and the 162-foot yacht himself, the total cost of the trip could have exceeded $500,000. Fortunately for him, that wasn’t necessary: He was on vacation with real estate magnate and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, who owned the jet — and the yacht, too.

But there were many other jaunts around the globe for Justice Thomas and his wife, Ginni, who worked to try and overturn the results of the 2020 election so that Donald Trump could remain in office despite having lost in a landslide to President Joe Biden.

The Campaign Legal Center (CLC) has written a committee of federal judges who oversee matters related to members of the judiciary and is requesting a formal criminal referral of Thomas to the Justice Department, noting:

Campaign Legal Center respectfully requests that the Judicial Conference exercise its authority pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 13106(b) and refer Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Attorney General because there is “reasonable cause to believe” that he “willfully failed to file information required to be reported” under the Ethics in GovernmentAct (“EIGA”).

Specifically, Justice Thomas’ public statement on April 7, 2023, and recent news reporting, confirm that for over twenty years he did not file required gift disclosures of private plane and yacht travel from one individual. There is reasonable cause to believe that the omissions were willful because Justice Thomas (1) previously reported private plane travel from the same individual in compliance with the law, but stopped the disclosures after negative media attention; and (2) has a history of omitting significant information from his financial disclosure reports.

Thomas has served on the Supreme Court since 1991.