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Harlan Crow Provided Clarence Thomas at Least 3 Previously Undisclosed Private Jet Trips, Senate Probe Finds (www.propublica.org)

submitted 6 months ago by jeffw to c/news

22 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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[–] MegaUltraChicken 48 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Okay obviously SCOTUS is the problem here, but Dick Fucking Durbin should've subpoena every single one of those fucks to testify before Congress. I don't care if they refuse, send the Sergeant At Arms and drag them in. And I'm not talking about just the conservatives. I want to know why the fuck Kagan, Sotomayor, and KBJ don't think they need an enforceable ethics code, because they've signed on to that too.

Letting these unelected zealots operate with minimal pushback is completely unacceptable.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (3 children)

I agree with your message, but as a Canadian, I always find it funny how Americans throw around "unelected" as a pejorative. Very few countries hold elections for anything that isn't a professional-political positions. Maybe I'm biased from my experiences, but I don't think there is anything wrong with judges being unelected, they should be apolitical and follow a code of ethics.

[–] lepinkainen 17 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The craziest thing to me as a non-American is that Sheriffs are voted for.

Zero qualifications, just need to be popular.

What. The. Fuck.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Why is it a bad thing that the head of law enforcement be accountable to the people directly? Why is it better for them to be appointed by a wealthy politician?

[–] lepinkainen 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Law enforcement should always require training and knowledge of the law.

Politicians are there to oversee and be elected, they are accountable to the people directly and they have the power to fire police officers.

Law enforcement shouldn’t be elected and thus be influenced by people directly

[–] LustyArgonianMana 1 points 6 months ago

They are public servants.

[–] FlyingSquid 8 points 6 months ago

I'm American and I agree with you 100%. You actually can elect local judges in many places in the U.S. and it's a terrible idea because people have no idea what they're voting for most of the time, and how can they? It's not like there's a lot of easily available literature about the people running to convict criminals. I usually end up voting for anyone who is a woman or a POC if I can just to increase diversity in the courts system, but as with Amy Coney Barrett and Clarence Thomas, that is obviously no guarantee.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It's also a pejorative that people only use when the ruling is against their interests.

My state (Wisconsin) elects its Supreme Court justices. It's a mixed bag. We had several years of conservative rule on the court with some terrible consequences. Now we have a liberal majority pretty well entrenched and things are starting to work out better.

What I do know is that federal Supreme Court justices shouldn't have lifetime terms. It should be long, but not lifetime.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

I'm not even sure if terms are necessary, though I don't mind the idea of a long term where at the end, Justices would have to be re-nominated. The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) does just fine with lifetime appointments (though we do have mandatory retirement at 75).

I think we could tinker with rules and procedure (for example, instituting strong codes of ethics), but I think what SCOTUS needs is a change in cultural norms, and that's extremely hard to bring about. The process for appointments to the SCC and SCOTUS are very similar, yet SCOTUS appointments are highly politicized while any "seemingly political" appointments of judges in Canada have faced huge public backlashes.

I think there are many differences that created these cultural norms but IMHO, one of the biggest is the politicization of lower-level judges (as well as other positions). This interweaves law and politics, and it's not unheard of for members of the judiciary to jump into full political-positions and back again. This is very different than Canada, where we also have many lawyers who enter politics, but that basically closes the door on ever entering the judiciary.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago

Dammit Clarance, we fought a whole ass war about whether a white man was allowed to own you!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago

Why is everyone concerned that Harlan is such a good and giving friend?? I give my friends vacations all the time without any quid pro quo. /s

[–] pyre 12 points 6 months ago (1 children)

i can't wait for this new revelation to have dire consequences

[–] Treczoks 4 points 6 months ago

That would be nice...

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Clarence “The Puppet” Thomas

Supreme Court Mercenary

[–] FlyingSquid 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The funny part to me is that I'm pretty sure Thomas would have always voted the way Harlan Crow wanted him to without all these gifts because they are ideologically aligned. So this is a complete waste of time in terms of trying to engage in corrupting a judge.

[–] Magnergy 5 points 6 months ago

I get what your point, and is a fair one. Except there is evidence that he wouldn't have been voting their way, since he was thinking of leaving the court, or at least gave that impression to others to get a raise. Then the gift tap turned on...

https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-money-complaints-sparked-resignation-fears-scotus

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

At least Harlan Crow doesn't have any cases in front of the Supreme Court! Otherwise this might look REALLY bad! Anyways we need to look into JUDGE MERCHAN'S DAUGHTER! That's a Conflict Of Interest!

[–] FlyingSquid 4 points 6 months ago

He had cases before the court in the past, or at least cases which served his interests. He's been doing this with Thomas since before those cases.

[–] Cosmicomical 5 points 6 months ago

I don't think he ever disclosed anything we didn't already know. That's not how disclosure works.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 6 months ago

They’re just attacking poor justice Thomas for political reasons

[–] [email protected] -3 points 6 months ago

They’re just attacking poor justice Thomas for political reasons