House Judiciary Committee Advances Bill Requiring SCOTUS To Develop A Code Of Judicial Ethics For Justices

by

Chief Justice John Roberts has ordered an investigation into the leak of Justice Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

But the Chief has not publicly expressed any concern over the earlier scandalous revelations about “Ginny” Thomas, Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife, having a direct line of influence over her client’s cases before the court – a conflict of interest that requires recusal for all other federal court judges – and her advisory role in the coup plotting for the January 6 insurrection.

Advertisement

Justice Clarence Thomas last month also used his position on the court for a political endorsement, something forbidden by the Rules of Judicial Ethics for every other federal judge except Jusitces of the U.S. Supreme Court. Thomas Poses With Senate Candidate Walker in Supreme Court Photo:

Justice Clarence Thomas spent time at the U.S. Supreme Court this week with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker, posing for a photo tweeted out by the former football star’s campaign spokesperson.

The photo comes amid scrutiny of the conservative justice stemming from the political activities of his wife, Virginia Thomas, including text messages she sent urging then-President Donald Trump’s chief of staff to do more to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory.

A number of judicial-ethics experts have said those efforts should have prompted Thomas to recuse himself from election-related cases the court handled. Thomas was the lone dissenter when the court cleared the way for some of Trump’s White House papers to be turned over to the congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell accurately described Justice Thomas as a “politician” who is “out of control.” Clarence Thomas ‘Very Much Out Of Control’:

“[T]here is a development that we have never seen before in this country that we are going to be begin with tonight. and that is the single biggest most important and gravest scandal in the history of the United States Supreme Court,” he said.

“And it is time to call Clarence Thomas what he is. A politician. And as a Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas is now very much out of control. Here is Clarence Thomas posing at the Supreme Court with a Republican Senate candidate who believes that Donald Trump won the last presidential election. Former football stall Herschel Walker pictured here with Clarence Thomas at the Supreme Court last week as Donald Trump’s chosen candidate in the Georgia Republican primary for the Senate race down there.

“The winner of the Republican primary will face Georgia’s Democratic senator in the general election. And this Clarence Thomas, who’s from Georgia, making it very clear to Georgia voters whose side he’s on.”

He pointed out Herschel Walker’s campaign tweeted the picture right away, because it sure looked like an endorsement.

“Senator Chris Murphy tweeted, quote, ‘a conservative Supreme Court justice doing a photo op with a Republican candidate on a competitive primary, I think the court has crossed the Rubicon. We need to pass the Supreme Court Ethics Act.’

“And it is thanks to Clarence Thomas’ out of control behavior that many Americans are now discovering for the first time the Supreme Court has no ethics rules whatsoever, none. No rules at all. from what a Supreme Court justice must recused from a case. But there is a federal law, one federal law that specifies that the Supreme Court justices may not participate in cases that involve their spouses in any way. That’s, it that’s the only real rule and it’s a law affecting Supreme Court justices.

“But that law does not have a criminal enforcement mechanism. you can’t get charged with a crime for violating the law, because it was inconceivable to the people writing that law that any Supreme Court justice would ever violate it. No member of the Supreme Court in history has ever been suspected of, or accused of anything as about as what we already know Clarence Thomas actually did.“

He described how Clarence Thomas was the only vote to block material from being delivered to the Jan. 6th committee that was likely to include communication from his wife, Ginni Thomas.

“And the reason we have every right to suspect that is, in material already handed over the January 6th committee by Donald Trump’s last White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, there were several text messages and emails from Clarence Thomas’s wife, Virginia Thomas, to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows urging him and everyone there to do everything possible to illegally overturn the results of the presidential election.

“In one of her messages to Mark Meadows, Virginia Thomas said, quote, ‘There are no rules in war.'”

Justice Clarence Thomas has long been the most unethical Justice on the Supreme Court, because his political agenda is his wife’s political agenda, and she uses her access to the Court through her husband to get results for her clients. There has never been a Supreme Court Justice so unethical.

But because there are no ethics rules that apply to Supreme Court Justices, there is not a solid legal basis to impeach Clarence Thomas, the only remedy available. Republicans have effectively rendered impeachment a nullity as a remedy anyway through their jury nullification in the Senate.

Congress is attempting to address this long overlooked problem. House panel advances bill requiring Supreme Court to develop code of ethics:

The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday advanced an ethics bill that would require the Supreme Court to “create a code of conduct that would apply to both the justices and their employees” in response to controversy involving Justice Clarence Thomas.

The bill passed along party lines by a 22-16 vote and will now go to the full House for consideration. The Supreme Court justices are currently the only judges in the federal judiciary who are not subject to such ethics policies, according to Bloomberg Law.

In a statement issued shortly after the legislation was advanced, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said “recent ethical lapses by justices appointed by presidents from both parties underscores the urgent need of this legislation.”

“The Supreme Court is one of the nation’s most vital institutions and its fidelity to equal and impartial justice, as well as the public’s faith in the integrity of the judiciary, are foundational to maintaining the rule of law,” he added.

Nadler also took a stab at the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, saying they all voted against “creating a commonsense ethics standard for our nation’s highest court.”

He added that ethical lapses include Thomas’s refusal to recuse himself from cases challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election even as, reports later revealed, his wife, Ginni Thomas, was lobbying former President Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows to find a way to keep Trump in power and was present at the Jan. 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the Capitol riot.

According to Nadler, it is “shocking” that any member of Congress would be opposed to creating a code of ethics that he said is consistent with those followed by other public officials for the Supreme Court.

“Republicans on this committee have voted against greater accountability and transparency at one of our nation’s most secretive, but consequential, institutions. Democrats will continue our work to strengthen the judiciary system through commonsense ethics reforms so the American people can have faith in the impartiality of our federal judges and justices.”

[Insurrectionist Coup Plotter] Rep. “Gym” Jordan (R-Ohio) pushed back during his opening remarks and said that the Democrats are trying to move legislation that “burdens the Supreme Court with layers of bureaucracy.”

He added that “this isn’t about ethics. This is an insurance policy for them when things don’t go their way. They want to have the tools at their disposal to make life hard for the justices. Whether that means seeking recusals, seeking impeachment or just showing up at their house and protesting.”

This piece of shit traitor has no concept of ethics because he has none. He is a case study in everything which is wrong with Congress.





Advertisement

Discover more from Blog for Arizona

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.