The Supreme Court believes it is outside of the law. It isn’t surprising seeing how the only people who are given lifetime appointments to a position of power are American judges, Royalty, and Dictators.
To tell someone that not only are they the arbiter of the Constitution, but that they can make their decisions based on their political opinions instead of purely on facts, and that they can do so without any oversight.
When Chief Justice Roberts was asked to speak before Congress concerning the unsettling ethics complaints against multiple Justices, he refused and had this to say:
"Testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee by the Chief Justice of the United States is exceedingly rare, as one might expect in light of the separation of powers concerns and the importance of preserving judicial independence"
Roberts also had all nine justices sign a two and a half page pledge stating they would try to be ethical. This pledge is not binding and calls out a variety of exceptions that Supreme Court Justices should have. None of these exceptions are allowed for lower courts which do have binding ethical codes.
Not one Justice spoke out on the need for an enforceable code of ethics. Not one Justice condemned the growing proof of unethical behavior by their colleagues. Because to do so, would infringe on their own ability to do whatever they want and never be held accountable.
That is not how the highest court in America should operate.
The claims
Justice Neil Gorsuch had property for sale starting in 2015 but was unable to find a buyer. Just nine days after being confirmed to the court in 2017, a chief executive of a law firm who had business before the Supreme Court bought the 40 acre property. That law firm has had 22 cases before the court since the purchase of that land. Justice Gorsuch left the name of the person buying his property off of disclosure forms.
Justice Clarence Thomas has had numerous dealings with the billionaire Republican Harlan Crow. Harlan Crow purchased several properties from Justice Thomas, including Thomas’s mother’s house. Even more concerning, is that Thomas’s mother continued to live in the house and Harlan Crow invested in renovations in that property, again all while Thomas’s mother lived there. Thomas never disclosed these sales.
Thomas and his wife took numerous trips over many years with Harlan Crow, including regular flights on Crow’s private jet, sailing on Crow’s private yacht, and staying at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks. None of these were reported.
Justice Thomas’s wife, Ginni, attempted to convince 29 lawmakers in Arizona to overturn the election results for Joe Biden. When Trump brought a case to the Supreme Court in an attempt to stop the Jan 6th Committee from gaining access to White House records, not only did Justice Thomas not recuse himself, he was the only Justice to dissent when the court denied Trump’s request.
UPDATE: The following reporting was released the day after this article was published. Links added to the end of this article.
-A conservative activist group with business before the Supreme Court paid money to Ginni Thomas but left her name off of the payment
-The billionaire Harlan Crow also paid for Clarence Thomas's nephew, who was being cared for by the Thomas and his wife, to go to an expensive private school
Justice Robert’s wife, Jane, has received millions of dollars in commissions from her work recruiting lawyers for firms, some of which have business before the Supreme Court.
Justice Thomas and Justice Kavanaugh both have credible allegations of sexual misconduct levied against them. We’ve learned recently that there was additional credible information and additional victims that weren’t brought forward during Kavanaugh’s appointment hearings.
Is it really any wonder that 63% of Americans disapprove of the current Supreme Court? There are more details to all of these ethics violations. The links to the initial reports are at the end of this article.
How do we fix this?
The first, and most essential, change needed to the Supreme Court is a binding code of ethics and an independent group, separate from the court, which evaluates cases of unethical conduct. The same body of government that is making the final determination on constitutional law should not be above the law itself, but in fact should be the most beholden to it.
Next we need term limits. One person should not be on the Supreme Court for 30+ years. No one can stay in touch with the country and the population when they are protected away in an exclusive position for so many decades. And when a Justice such as Thomas is ethically compromised, term limits ensure their eventual removal even if all other methods of removal fail.
Lastly we need to consider the current size of the court. There is nothing in the US constitution that stipulates that America needs to have nine Justices. In fact the Supreme Court originally had 6 Justices, then 7, then 10 at one point, back to 7, then 9. Changing the number of Justices on the court wasn’t ever considered radical. Increasing the Justices would minimize the effect that any one corrupt member could have on America and restore the balance that was taken away by underhanded politics.
It would benefit Republicans to remember how America ended up in this situation.
When Mitch McConnell couldn’t get a 2/3rds vote to confirm Gorsuch, he removed the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations only, allowing a simple 51 majority to approve Gorsuch’s nomination. McConnell has since railed against any suggestion of removing the filibuster for legislation once Democrats had the 51 majority.
In 2016, McConnell refused to even have a hearing for Merrick Garland, Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy. This hadn’t happened in any Senate since the Civil War. McConnell claimed that since the 1880s, no opposition party had confirmed a Supreme Court nomination in an election year. As you would gather by that oddly chosen date, opposition parties did confirm Supreme Court nominees numerous times prior to then. McConnell conveniently overlooked the 1988 confirmation of Justice Kennedy by an opposition party, Democrats, while Reagan, a Republican, was President.
McConnell ignored the tradition that a Supreme Court nomination had never happened once a Presidential election was underway. But tradition meant nothing to McConnell when they rushed through Ginsburg’s replacement as they feared, rightfully so, that Trump would lose his reelection which would put the seat in the hands of the Democrats.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that when someone is so driven to take over the Supreme Court and are willing to break every long standing tradition and precedent to do so, that they wouldn’t be too selective on the ethical standards of those they appoint.
It also shouldn’t surprise Republicans that since tradition and precedent were tossed aside to create the mess we’re in, that Democrats are willing to start new traditions and create new precedents to fix the mess.
America has lost all faith in the United States Supreme Court. Congress should take every measure to restore that faith and to protect our nation from corruption.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/25/neil-gorsuch-colorado-property-sale-00093579
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-real-estate-scotus
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/06/10/ginni-thomas-election-arizona-lawmakers/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/31/us/john-roberts-jane-sullivan-roberts.html
UPDATE:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/05/04/leonard-leo-clarence-ginni-thomas-conway/
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-private-school-tuition-scotus