this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2024
994 points (91.3% liked)

General Discussion

12086 readers
1 users here now

Welcome to Lemmy.World General!

This is a community for general discussion where you can get your bearings in the fediverse. Discuss topics & ask questions that don't seem to fit in any other community, or don't have an active community yet.


🪆 About Lemmy World


🧭 Finding CommunitiesFeel free to ask here or over in: [email protected]!

Also keep an eye on:

For more involved tools to find communities to join: check out Lemmyverse!


💬 Additional Discussion Focused Communities:


Rules

Remember, Lemmy World rules also apply here.0. See: Rules for Users.

  1. No bigotry: including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia.
  2. Be respectful. Everyone should feel welcome here.
  3. Be thoughtful and helpful: even with ‘silly’ questions. The world won’t be made better by dismissive comments to others on Lemmy.
  4. Link posts should include some context/opinion in the body text when the title is unaltered, or be titled to encourage discussion.
  5. Posts concerning other instances' activity/decisions are better suited to [email protected] or [email protected] communities.
  6. No Ads/Spamming.
  7. No NSFW content.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] UnderpantsWeevil -1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Rules adjudicated by whom? You'd need another independent judiciary specifically tasked with overseeing the SCOTUS, and there's a lot of reasons why that would be a dicey proposition.

[–] AA5B 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Even if they’re responsible for policing themselves, you’d get a huge improvement by making them write it down. We shouldn’t have Clarence Thomas claiming he didn’t know that accepting $100k+ is an obvious conflict of interest.

My company has no problem writing down ethics policies for me - I’m sure they’d let the supremes copy it. We even have regular training to clarify edge cases that Clarence Thomas claimed to not understand. I’m sure they could subscribe to the same service

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Even if they’re responsible for policing themselves, you’d get a huge improvement by making them write it down.

Would you? Do you seriously think guys like Kavanaugh and Alito would sincerely self-report? Or would they just lie with impunity and dare you to call their bluffs?

We shouldn’t have Clarence Thomas claiming he didn’t know that accepting $100k+ is an obvious conflict of interest.

Who holds Thomas to account when he's caught perjuring himself? What court do you put him in front of?

My company has no problem writing down ethics policies for me

Without a doubt, because you're staff and they're the boss. But there's no one to hold the owner of a company to its own internal policies. Not when the owner gets to author, adjudicate, and dictate the administration of those policies. No Twitter HR rep is going to rein in Elon Musk.

[–] AA5B 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Currently, they not only judge themselves but decide what their standards are.

Clarence Thomas was found out, and we’re all outraged. So far, he’s claiming various versions of ignorance and there’s no rule against it. Writing down ethical standards mean he can no longer make those claims. He’d have no excuse, no way to delay.

You’re right that he still might not be held accountable, but it is a step in the right direction

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 1 points 8 months ago

Writing down ethical standards mean he can no longer make those claims.

Okay, sure. But then he just makes a new set of bullshit claims, and nobody exists in a position to call him on it.

You’re right that he still might not be held accountable, but it is a step in the right direction

If it was a step we were taking, I won't object. Part of the problem with this bullshit is that reforms are almost always DOA, outside of hypothetical debates. But if I'm starting from a blank slate and told "Fix the SCOTUS", I'd dream a bit bigger than a rule with no teeth.