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The US Supreme Court says it is adopting a code of ethics for the first time

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Re: The US Supreme Court says it is adopting a code of ethics for the first time

#51

Post by sonicanatidae »

beezlebroxxxxxx wrote: post #23

This is an interesting attempt to ward off the growing skepticism of judicial supremacy in some groups. There is a fascinating struggle between judicial supremacy and constitutional supremacy in America with a long history. Obviously there are pros and cons to each view, and who is for or against one or the other often changes depending on the social issue at hand. I don't think a code of ethics will be very effectiv…

This is a band-aid on a broken leg. There is no enforcement and no penalty for walking right past ethics into outright bribery for SCOTUS and some sheet of paper with no teeth isn't changing that.

They may as well fine them $50 every time they accept a bribe.

Term limits would go much, much further and you'll notice the absence.

Re: The US Supreme Court says it is adopting a code of ethics for the first time

#52

Post by ImJamal »

archildress wrote: post #35
ImJamal wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may want to read the article since others have issues as well. >Many of those stories focused on Justice Clarence Thomas and his failure to disclose travel and other financial ties with wealthy conservative donors including Harlan Crow and the Koch brothers. But Justices Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor also have been under scrutiny.

Roughly equivalent to "all news networks are biased", overlooking the "but not to equivalent degrees."

Frankly you are making a massive assumption. We don't know how deep this behavior goes with the other justices. In 2018, Ginsburg had more trips paid for by others than any other justice for example. Since 2004, Bryer had more trips than any other justice.

The fact that people are only calling out one person seems very telling to me. This problem is far deeper than one guy or one side.

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/06/scotus-justices-rac...

Re: The US Supreme Court says it is adopting a code of ethics for the first time

#53

Post by rqtwteye »

ImJamal wrote: post #27
archildress wrote: post #11

Headline ought to be re-written as "Supreme Court forced to codify once-unwritten rules due to rampant abuse by Justice Thomas."

You may want to read the article since others have issues as well. >Many of those stories focused on Justice Clarence Thomas and his failure to disclose travel and other financial ties with wealthy conservative donors including Harlan Crow and the Koch brothers. But Justices Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor also have been under scrutiny.

Good! Let's bring it all into the open. At a minimum it will show that these supposedly ethical people are basically just playthings paid for by billionaires. It's pretty crazy that low level government employees have way stricter ethical requirements than the higher ups.

Re: The US Supreme Court says it is adopting a code of ethics for the first time

#56

Post by ImJamal »

drawkward wrote: post #37
ImJamal wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may want to read the article since others have issues as well. >Many of those stories focused on Justice Clarence Thomas and his failure to disclose travel and other financial ties with wealthy conservative donors including Harlan Crow and the Koch brothers. But Justices Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor also have been under scrutiny.

That may be true, but the extent of the reporting suggests that The Honorable Justice Thomas might be a bit more ethically lapsed.

I think it is due to the reporting. This is from 2019, but it shows both Ginsburg and Breyer were amongst the worst.

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/06/scotus-justices-rac...

Re: The US Supreme Court says it is adopting a code of ethics for the first time

#57

Post by addicted »

ImJamal wrote: post #27
archildress wrote: post #11

Headline ought to be re-written as "Supreme Court forced to codify once-unwritten rules due to rampant abuse by Justice Thomas."

You may want to read the article since others have issues as well. >Many of those stories focused on Justice Clarence Thomas and his failure to disclose travel and other financial ties with wealthy conservative donors including Harlan Crow and the Koch brothers. But Justices Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor also have been under scrutiny.

I suspect there’s a lot of gray areas and I suspect justices of all stripes have tripped over the gray area multiple times.

But I think all the justices can see what Thomas was doing was pretty awful and I doubt any of the other justices, even those whose views I find abhorrent, would have gone that far.

And we’re only talking about justices’ actions themselves. This ethics code very clearly brings in consideration of the judge’s spouse’s activities as well, something which, once again is a major problem with Thomas, and none of the other judges as far as I can tell.

Re: The US Supreme Court says it is adopting a code of ethics for the first time

#58

Post by ImJamal »

KerrAvon wrote: post #42
ImJamal wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may want to read the article since others have issues as well. >Many of those stories focused on Justice Clarence Thomas and his failure to disclose travel and other financial ties with wealthy conservative donors including Harlan Crow and the Koch brothers. But Justices Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor also have been under scrutiny.

under scrutiny doing a lot of work in that sentence. What does that mean in practice?

It means they have done the exact same thing, but it hasn't broken. This has been going on for decades now. Take a look at this report

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/06/scotus-justices-rac...

Re: The US Supreme Court says it is adopting a code of ethics for the first time

#59

Post by phpisthebest »

mikeyouse wrote: post #34
willcipriano wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same is true of most of government. From the FDA to the ATF practical life altering choices are increasingly made by a unelected permanent government unfettered by things like accountability.

Those departments are executive branch departments, their leadership can be fired by the President and can be appointed with a simple majority in the Senate - hence how we've had 7 FDA commissioners since 2017 - not remotely comparable to the US Supreme Court.

Can they? For practical purposes they can but it is about as doable as impeachment of a sitting justice, it is more of a power that exists on paper but can not actually be utilized due to politics and traditions.

>>7 FDA commissioners since 2017

hmmm... were they fired or did they take very high paying Big Pharma Jobs further enriching themselves from the corrupt deep state?

Re: The US Supreme Court says it is adopting a code of ethics for the first time

#60

Post by mikeyouse »

willcipriano wrote: post #45
mikeyouse wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those departments are executive branch departments, their leadership can be fired by the President and can be appointed with a simple majority in the Senate - hence how we've had 7 FDA commissioners since 2017 - not remotely comparable to the US Supreme Court.

One example of this accountability you ensure me exists: https://www.businessinsider.com/fda-chief-approved-oxycontin... Guy is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the addiction of millions. He wasn't elected and he wont be punished.

Seems odd to call the leadership of the FDA "an unelected permanent government" and then linking to a commissioner's job after they resigned from the FDA. Even more ironically for this particular discussion - the legality of this pretty open corruption is specifically due to decisions made by the Supreme Court, who have gutted all of the bribery, official corruption, and campaign finance laws we used to have.
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