US Supreme Court Discussions

[RoseMorninStar]

I agree that what is expected of one should be expected of all, but did those 'some on the right' complain when Republicans -unfairly- wouldn't allow Obama his Supreme court nominations? Ugh. I'm so tired of all of the game playing and corruption.

[Frelga]

Well, yes, she should have. Caesar's wife must be above suspicion, and all that. But comparing expenses for a speaking engagement to a billionaire lavishing luxury vacations on a justice and paying for his mum's house is like apples and aircraft carriers.

[N.E. Brigand]

There have been so many stories about corruption in and around the conservative judiciary that I'm having trouble keeping up. Here's a new piece in Politico. Why post in this thread? Because Leonard Leo appears in the infamous painting of Harlan Crow and Clarence Thomas.

Leonard Leo used Federalist Society contact to obtain $1.6B donation
The society’s close ties to Leo’s network raise questions about its nonpartisan, non-political status.
Leonard Leo, who helped to choose judicial nominees for former President Donald Trump, obtained a historic $1.6 billion gift for his conservative legal network via an introduction through the Federalist Society, whose tax status forbids political activism.

Leo first met Barre Seid, the now 91-year-old manufacturing magnate turned donor, through an introduction arranged by Eugene Meyer, the longtime director of the Federalist Society. At the time, Leo was the society’s executive vice president, and he is currently its co-chair. Meyer envisioned Seid as a contributor to the society, according to a person familiar with the introduction. Instead, Leo cultivated Seid as a funder of his own dark money network. The result was a $1.6 billion gift announced last year — which is believed to be the largest political donation ever.

The unusual arrangement in which Leo met his top donor through the prestigious Federalist Society — which describes itself as a nonpartisan educational organization — suggests closer ties between the society and Leo’s activist network than previously known. Leo has used the dark money network to donate millions of dollars to the society and to pay at least $1.54 million to one Federalist Society employee and $775,000 to an entity run by another, according to federal disclosure forms.

More at the link. Also there was a Senate hearing about the Supreme Court today in which several Republicans seem to have defended corruption as normal.

[N.E. Brigand]

Nice summary by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of the Supreme Court's "personal invitation trick":



"It's a cover up in plain view."

And regarding Leonard Leo: "This guy doesn't have business before the Court; his business is the Court."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

Regarding the Clarence Thomas relative whom Thomas raised "like a son" and whose tuition was paid by Thomas's billionaire buddy, Harlan Crow: Mark Paoletta, one of the five guys in the notorious Adirondacks painting, wants us to know that it didn't violate the ethics rules because the child was Thomas's great-nephew and not legally his dependent:

[N.E. Brigand]

I appreciate Chris Hayes's questions:

"Can anyone else say they have a friendship like the one Clarence Thomas has with Harlan Crow? A friend you met when he gave you a ride on his private jet, who's also your mom's landlord but doesn't charge her rent and pays for a family member's tuition? A friend who takes you on his yacht and six figure vacations, all expenses paid? Maybe other people have relationships like this, but I have not encountered a relationship like this in my own life. It strikes me as pretty strange."

And this reply:

"Just imagine what would be happening if George Soros was paying all of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s bills."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Democrats would line up to impeach her.

[RoseMorninStar]

Yup.

[Frelga]

[N.E. Brigand]

CNN reports that liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor and conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch both failed to recuse themselves from cases involving the company that publishes their books, Penguin Random House (this concerns three cases for Sotomayor and two cases for Gorsuch) -- although both justices did note income from Penguin in their financial disclosure forms. Former liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, also published by Penguin, did recuse from those cases. (The Court didn't actually hear these cases but rather declined to take up the appeal, but the result was that lower court judgements favoring Penguin stood. We don't know for sure that the failure of Sotomayor and Gorsuch to recuse made a difference in whether the cases would be heard. But that's part of the point: we should know.)

[N.E. Brigand]

Washington Post reporter Emma Brown writes that "Conservative activist Leonard Leo arranged consulting fees for Clarence Thomas's wife -- and urged her name be left off billing paperwork. 'No mention of Ginni, of course,' Leo emphasized, according to documents reviewed by the Post."

"Of course." As you may recall, Leo is one of the men portrayed in that Adirondacks painting.

Kellyanne Conway also makes an appearance in this story about these 2012 communications.

[N.E. Brigand]

That Post article also reveals some questionable financial activity by Leo, who manages or advises a network of political non-profits, one of which, the Judicial Education Project -- the one that Leo instructed Kellyanne Conway to bill $25,000 to be secretly paid to Ginni Thomas in 2012 -- saw its revenue grow to $117 million by 2021, and yet Leo himself is "not listed on its tax filings or incorporation documents," and "it has listed its main office as a UPS Store."

[N.E. Brigand]

In most cases, Thomas does not really need an AEI brief to know how Crow would want him to rule.

Been thinking about this for a while, because a question arises: why then (as I believe) has Harlan Crow been bribing Justice Thomas?

I think Chris Hayes gets at the reason here. Republican-appointed SCOTUS justices wouldn't stay bought:



I also appreciate Hayes's point about how conservatives act as the falsely believe liberals behave.

[RoseMorninStar]

I generally don't watch the news but I caught that part of Hayes' show and thought it sounded spot on.

I also appreciate Hayes's point about how conservatives act as the falsely believe liberals behave.

Pathological distortion/justification. It goes hand in hand with the victim narrative. It serves the desire to control others and sidestep accountability.

[N.E. Brigand]

A new study estimates that "without Court expansion, Democrats are unlikely to retain control of the Court until 2065." That's nearly a century after Republicans first had a majority on the Supreme Court. That change could have come as "soon" as 2029 if (1) Justice Ginsburg had retired in 2014 and (2) Merrick Garland had been confirmed in 2016.

[RoseMorninStar]

Perhaps the Supreme court will become a big issue in the upcoming election.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Here's another one for N.E.B.

[narya]

So much for checks and balances.

[N.E. Brigand]

Yesterday The Atlantic published a profile of and interview with Justice Clarence Thomas's friend and benefactor, Harlan Crow. Here's a sample:

Surely, I suggested, he could have structured the deal in a way that would not have involved writing a personal check to a Supreme Court justice. Create a foundation for public education, put impartial trustees on its board, and let it buy the house. Crow said he had done many deals in his life, and every one could, in retrospect, have been done a little better. This one wasn’t even a bad one, let alone corrupt. “It was a fair-market transaction, and I had a purpose,” Crow said. “I don’t see the foot fault.” But the idea that he had secretly corrupted his friend left him aghast. (I asked him whether he had any other financial relationships with Thomas or anyone related to Thomas, and he declined to answer, saying he doesn’t keep track of the hospitality extended to friends.)