An analysis of the ethics situation at the Supreme Court (SC) concludes that ethics are optional. The SC excuses itself from existing ethics regulations and says there is nothing to see here. Balls and Strikes writes:
The Supreme Court Spouses Cannot StopStomping On Ethical RakesSupreme Court justices all fill out mandatory financial disclosures, which include income of their family members. Court spokesperson Patricia McCabe came to the defense of Jane Roberts [wife of chief justice Roberts], pointing to a 2009 advisory opinion stating that judges “need not recuse merely because” their spouse works as a recruiter for firms with business before the Court. But Price points out that because Jane Roberts listed her compensation on these forms as salary, instead of spelling out her commissions, her work posed obvious ethical conflicts for the Chief Justice: The Roberts family could be quietly raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars from law firms with regular business before the Court. According to Price, Jane Roberts made millions in commissions. Details about which lawyers she placed where—and the money she made for it—would shed more light about the propriety of the Chief recusing himself from certain cases before the Court.If Supreme Court justices were bound by the existing code of conduct for federal judges, which requires that spouses divulge the sources of income over $1,000, including commissions, Jane Roberts’s conduct here could have been a violation. But the justices are not formally bound by the code. Previously, John Roberts has asserted that the justices have “no reason” to adopt it for themselves.But even if Jane Roberts’s work wouldn’t have actually required her husband to recuse, her failure to disclose her income correctly raises questions about why. And right now, the appearance of corruption is just as harmful to a Court that cannot stop itself from stepping on ethical rakes. In his 2021 end-of-the-year report, Chief Justice Roberts noted that the code of conduct requires that “a judge recuse in any matter in which the judge knows of a personal financial interest, no matter how small.” Public confidence in the institution is at an all-time low, and the justices’ unyielding belief that they are above the rules is a major reason why. It would have been so easy for the Robertses to do the right thing here. They simply couldn’t be bothered.
Roberts says there is “no reason” to adopt an ethics conduct code. This is another example of the smug arrogance of the SC.
Analysis
1. If there is no reason to adopt ethics rules, there is equally no reason not to. Right? Right. That's just common sense.
2. Roberts knows that public trust in the SC has fallen. He claims that is a bad thing for democracy. He also claims that there is no reason to adopt ethics. Therefore, why not adopt an ethics code that would give the public an actual reason to maybe have some trust? The most likely answer is that there are lots of corrupt and/or partisan political things the SC needs to hide. That's also just common sense.
3. Since Roberts is a Republican in charge of the SC, it is reasonable to believe that his anti-ethics, pro-secrecy, and pro-corruption attitude reflects that of the GOP leadership generally. After all, Republicans in congress and the White House want judges that look and act like them and that carry out the radical right's anti-democracy political agenda. More common sense.
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The witch hunts begin: The NYT writes on the first subpoenas the radical right GOP House has issued:
Republicans on Friday issued their first subpoenas of the Biden administration since taking control of the House, demanding documents for an investigation into whether the government mistreated parents who were scrutinized after school officials endured threats and harassment over mask mandates and teaching about racism.
Just two days after the Judiciary Committee was organized for the new Congress, Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio and the panel’s chairman, sent subpoenas to Merrick B. Garland, the attorney general, F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray and Miguel A. Cardona, the secretary of education, accusing them of withholding information about whether the government overreached in scrutinizing parents.
It is reasonable to expect that even if the government did not overreach, Republican extremists will find overreach. Then endless impeachments will commence and not end until the GOP gets voted out of power over the House. Obviously there is a big assumption here. That is, assuming it will ever be possible to vote Republicans out of power after they are done rigging elections in their favor. We might find out after the 2024 elections.
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A commentator commentates on the new and improved House of Representatives:
A CNN poll last week found that about three-quarters of Americans, including nearly half of Republicans, think House Republican leaders aren’t paying enough attention to the country’s most pressing problems.So this week, GOP leaders set out to rectify the situation. They approved a resolution condemning the Russian Revolution. Of 1917. .... “Congress denounces socialism in all its forms and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States,” the resolution concluded. .... “Socialism is the greatest threat to our economy and freedom and must be defeated,” Rep. Roger Williams (R-Tex.) warned the House on Thursday, calling the fictional menace “alarming and scary.”
Still awaiting legislative action by the new House majority: a condemnation of Genghis Khan’s Siege of Merv in 1221 and the Roman Sack of Carthage during the Third Punic War.
This week alone, the new majority used its powers in committee rooms and on the House floor to undermine trust in government on various fronts:
- Falsely claiming that lazy bureaucrats are refusing to go to work, denying Americans their tax refunds, passports and benefits.
- Falsely insinuating that the government is forcing Americans to take coronavirus vaccines that are both deadly and useless.
- Falsely asserting that the Biden administration is in effect killing Americans by encouraging fentanyl smugglers to enter the country across “open borders.”
- Falsely declaring the only Muslim on the House Foreign Affairs Committee a threat to national security and booting her from the panel in a party-line vote.
- And, for extra credit, summoning the ghosts of Stalin and Mao to suggest that the administration promotes an ideology of mass murder.
Although socialism is a fictional menace, the alarming and scary radical right GOP is an actual menace.
So there you have it, fans of functioning government. The GOP knows how to rule with grace, wisdom and efficiency. . . . . . /s
Let’s take a quick tour of the crazies in the House. Their war on critical thinking explains a lot about why the United States is laughed at on the global stage, and why no real solutions to our problems emerge from that broken legislative body.
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