MicroWaveSenators call for Supreme Court to follow ethics code like other branches of government
KerrigorThomas: Ethics are for poors
StarServal“Ethics are not in the constitution”
winterayarsWhat he would actually say…
Is that a textualist or originalist interpretation of the constitution?
In other words…
Are the Supreme Priests going to go by the strict definition of the words or the way they feel the founding fathers intended the words? Ah wh am i kidding they are just playing
“Who’s line is it anyway?: Supreme Edition
The court where everything’s made up and the constitution don’t matter”
Thomas: fuck you I got mine
And the blacks /s
The other branches have ethics codes?
Actually, yes.
As does the federal judiciary. Alito was a federal judge and while serving as such he knew damn well that any gift over about $20 had to be both turned down, and also reported.
That's the rules that federal judges live under, the same rules that most of the executive branch lives under.
Senators and Representatives have looser rules, but they do have them... And Thomas and Alito have been instrumental in loosening those rules.
Ted Cruz and the conservatives on the court actually made outright bribery legal if the bribed jumps through the right hoops. See FCC v Ted Cruz for more info.
As a former school bus driver I can assure you that if you don’t have consequences, you don’t have rules.
For everyone except supreme court justices and sitting senators, there are actual consequences for accepting gifts in excess of $20. And sitting senators used to have consequences as well. Until republicans decided that the rules didn't apply to them, so they got rid of the rules.
The aggravating thing is, without rules in place, you cannot punish someone for breaking the rules. Not unless you like mob justice, with is never actually just, and never stops until the bloodlust is fully slaked.
skyemy first thought too lol. you wouldnt think so based on the levels of corruption in government
And yet there are 0 consequences for not doing so. What is Congress going to do?
In sane times there was impeachment. But we are not living in those sane times.
Congress is legally allowed to impeach any SCOTUS justice they want.
And the chances of it actually leading to removal from SCOTUS hover around zero.
Blame Congress for that. It’s their fault for never actually using their abilities.
What are the consequences if state or federal government decided not to follow a Supreme Court ruling? It’s up to the Attorney General to enforce the laws of the Justice Department and that position is a presidential appointee.
Congress can also impose a mandate on the executive branch if they got out of hand. The issue is SCotUS is clearly out of hand now, yet congress is doing nothing. The whole “checks and balances” system is idealistic and clearly flawed.
impose a mandate
the law for us poors is “do it or men with guns will put you in a box”. what men with guns does congress have to force the president to do what scotus tell him to?
I was curious to see if this might play out had Biden invoked the 14th amendment to solve the recent debt-limit standoff. Had he done so, chancer are it would have eventually gone to the Supreme Court to ‘rule’ whether they liked that or not. But had they ruled against it and the Biden Treasury Department just… kept paying our debt, what would the Supreme Court be able to do? Throw a fit?
But how will they get all those free vacations?
They will just speech millions of dollars to their spouses
MereoWait, what?!? In the US, Supreme Court judges have no code of ethics?!?! If I’m not mistaken, here in Canada all judges are bound by a code of ethics: cjc-ccm.ca/…/CJC_20-301_Ethical-Principles_Biling…
Pretty sure it's the same in Australia. Our judges are also appointed by their legal peers who are also held to a pretty strict code of ethics. Breaches of these codes can result in being stripped of your right to practice law. These features combined limit this nonsense of partisan judges tthat the US seems to be afflicted with.
Supreme Court appointments in the US don’t even need to be lawyers or have any legal experience. There are absolutely zero qualifications for being an appointed judge beyond being appointed by the President and gaining the “Advice and Consent” of the Senate.
That’s it.
The President could nominate Chaz, the 17-year-old stoner with a peach fuzz goatee whose most daunting task in any given day is when someone orders a customized burrito at the Taco Bell drive thru and they have to make it in less than 2 minutes. If the Senate confirms him — based on current justicies, all he has to do is cry when asked questions — he’s a Supreme Court justice.
jballsI remember when Dubya nominated someone who was vastly under qualified and actually got shot down for non-partisan reasons. It was a simpler time.
Flying SquidHarriet Miers.
No doubt if Trump were to get re-elected, he’d nominate Judge Aileen Cannon to the SCOTUS, with her 3 years of judicial experience and trail of questionable decisions.
Arguably Chaz might make a better judge ..
all the other judges have a code of ethic. scotus insists that it has a code of ethics too, but that it has to keep that code secret or people with business before the court will try to abuse that code of ethics in order to force unfavorable justices to recuse themselves. scotus also tells us that taking money, favors and gifts from people who have business before the court does not violate the secret code of ethics that they have. how a code of ethics that doesn’t cover bribery differs from a code of ethics that doesn’t exist at all has been left as an exercise to the reader.
Holy pot kettle black Batman
I’d like to see them held to an actual standard instead of what we let the other two branches get away with.
"lol"
- Thomas
Real talk:
What would be the actual consequences here? Because as far as I can tell, ethics bodies over the other branches are about as worthless as the bioethics division at Umbrella Labs.
I doubt the Senate has any code of ethics anyway.
RaphaelA guillotine should be fine, behead a couple corrupt judges and the rest should fall in line quickly enough.
Yeah nothing like going old-school French Revolution and killing a few million people then having a couple civil wars to really sus out who is a “true American.”
They call it the Reign of Terror because it was so much fun!
MyFairJuliaIt’s not about being a true american, it’s about finally putting up a boundary against fascism. Granted, Robespierre was doing his own brand of fascism with the guillotine but we don’t have to repeat this part of history.
You see it that way, and millions of others see it as “the socialist takeover” or whatever nonsense, and all of a sudden we have mobs of people killing each other
Seriously. Why are they getting handouts when they can legally get rich on insider trading, like normal Congress members? (/s in case you think I’m serious)
Why not do both?
One is legal and other isn’t.
They’re both effectively legal when none of our elected lawmakers will hold them accountable.
everything is legal when you’re the final word on what the law is and your only oversight is death itself
Supreme Court says, “fuck you, make me. But not right now, I’m off to my buddy’s yacht.”
Another of the bazillion reasons why you shouldn’t vote Democrat or Republican, but you will.
Unfortunately.
You should be ashamed of yourself with the whole both sides thing. You’re not, but you should be.
Unfortunately.
I’ve observed 40 years of Democrats solely enabling rollbacks of economic and social power, and then pretending to be powerless when we need them to stand up and do something. There’s nothing shameful about acknowledging that they’ve become collaborators.
How unfortunate.
I mean, it really is.
The minimum wage is, and has been, stuck at 7 bucks an hour for 15 years. Abortion is now illegal in most of the country. Trans people are living in fear for their lives under a Democratic president who had control of Congress for two years. We have unlimited funds for like 9 wars, and one of those wars isn’t even ours, but diabetics are being charged a mortgage payment to inhabit their own body every month. We find five billion in charity for Israel every year even though they don’t need it and entire towns in this country have poisoned water pipes. Neither Democrats nor Republicans are doing anything about the increasing scarcity of housing even though that is becoming a legitimate crisis in most major cities. To top it off, Democrats even withheld $600 of the $2000 in COVID aid they promised us when we gave them a majority.
It is literally unfortunate. I appreciate your pithy tone though.
It is true that many democrats are complicit in our problems. To say that people shouldn’t vote - which is what you said, 2 party system - is wrong. Democrat is the better option despite the current flaws.
I suspect you are hinting at revolution, but you won’t get off the couch. Be the change you want to see.
Democrat is the better option
I don’t know how anyone can come to that conclusion, especially if you’re a wage earner, or need health care, or education, or to not be in fear for your life as a trans person. Democrats do nothing meaningful when we hand them a majority and all of their supporters just offer up excuses like they’re somehow powerless.
I suspect you are hinting at revolution, but you won’t get off the couch. Be the change you want to see.
I know I’m shouting into the void. The voting population in this country votes Democrat or Republican no matter what their politicians do. No one is willing to hold anyone accountable. We’re powerless. The best anyone can do for themselves in this country is to take all of the money you might donate to a politician and invest it in the stock market instead. At least your money will have actual representation. You won’t.
My Democratic-run state
- was first to allow gay marriage and is very accepting
- is probably first in health care, including coverage for most, depending on your metrics
- is consistently first or second for education
- minimum wage $15/hr
- in several quality of life metrics ranks right up there with best in the world countries
And we recently pushed through the MBTA Communities Zoning law requiring towns with transit to allow “by right” high density housing near transit stations
I’m glad things are going well in your state.
I wish people cared what happens at the Federal level.
It’s absolute insanity that members of the highest court in the land don’t have to abide by such pesky rules as “codes of ethics” or even have to worry about the appearance of impropriety. I’m guessing it’s another of those things where the Founding Fathers assumed that selfless politicians, working tirelessly in service of their countrymen, would come together for the good of the nation to impeach SOC judges if there was ever even a hint of something wrong happening.
Meanwhile, in reality it’s just this BS club of unelected judges that get to basically make their own policy without any oversight. I get that somebody somewhere has to be a deciding factor on how some of these cases play out, but given the weight and responsibility that comes with the position, they really should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us.
because when you get right down to it anything they did would be themselves doing it and thus subject to themselves NOT doing it. so the founding documents cut to the chase – impeach the fuckers if they need it.
(of course, as you hint, they didn’t appropriately plan for party capture)
Correction Democratic Senators call for ethics code, Republican Senators say the branches should not monitor each other.
They think “checks and balances” refers to campaign donations.