Clarence Thomas corruption

[lpetrich]

Biden proposes Supreme Court term limits, ethics code | AP News

President Joe Biden said Monday that “extremism” on the U.S. Supreme Court is undermining public confidence in the institution and called on Congress to quickly establish term limits and an enforceable ethics code for the court’s nine justices. He also called on lawmakers to ratify a constitutional amendment limiting presidential immunity.

Seems rather unlikely that that will get anywhere this year.

The likely Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, who has sought to frame her race against Republican ex-President Donald Trump as “a choice between freedom and chaos,” quickly endorsed the Biden proposal.

“Extremism is undermining the public confidence in the court’s decisions,” Biden said. He added, “We can and must prevent abuse of presidential power and restore faith in the Supreme Court.”

...
Biden pointed to the 2013 high court decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade and rolling back abortion rights, and a 2023 decision “eviscerating” affirmative action in college admission programs as three prime examples of what he saw as “outrageous” decisions that have shaken Americans’ faith in the high court.

Harris, in a statement, said the reforms being proposed are needed because “there is a clear crisis of confidence facing the Supreme Court.”

 

[lpetrich]

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson called the proposal a “dangerous gambit” that would be “dead on arrival in the House.” Trump dismissed the effort on Monday as ”a typical Biden con.”

“It’s going nowhere,” Trump said in a Fox News interview. “He knows that too.”

...
Biden also is calling on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment reversing the Supreme Court’s recent landmark immunity ruling that determined former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution.

That decision extended the delay in the Washington criminal case against Trump on charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss and all but ended prospects the former president could be tried before the November election.

“This nation was founded on the principle there are no kings in America,” Biden said. “Each of us are equal before the law. No one is above the law. For all practical purposes, the court’s decision almost certainly means the president can violate their oath, flout our laws, and face no consequences.”

That will be difficult. It will need 2/3 of both chambers of Congress and then 3/4 of the states.

The Justices potentially most affected by term limits are right-wing ones. Clarence Thomas has been in the court for nearly 33 years, John Roberts for 19 years, and Samuel Alito for 18 years.

 

[lpetrich]

How Biden's proposed Supreme Court changes might work | AP News

Term limits?

There’s a big problem: The Constitution gives all federal judges lifetime tenure, unless they resign, retire or are removed.

There are ideas about how to impose term limits without an amendment — but if such a law passed and were challenged in court the justices could end up ruling on it and it’s unclear how they’d come down, said Charles Geyh, a law professor at Indiana University and expert in judicial ethics.

Enforcing a code of ethics on the Supreme Court? "... making the high court’s ethical code enforceable raises thorny questions about how it might be enforced, and by whom."

Presidential immunity?

The amendment would “make clear that there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office,” Biden wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post. “We are a nation of laws — not of kings or dictators.”

It wouldn’t be the first time - the Constitution has been amended about five times to in US history to overturn a Supreme Court decision, Geyh said.

But the last amendment was over 30 years ago.  List of amendments to the Constitution of the United States

• 1791: 1 to 10
• 1795: 11
• 1804: 12
• 1865: 13 - 1868: 14 - 1870: 15
• 1913: 16, 17 - 1919: 18 - 1920: 19
• 1933: 20, 21
• 1951: 22
• 1961: 23 - 1964: 24 - 1965: 25 - 1971: 26
• 1992: 27

 Cyclical theory (United States history)

Most of the amendments were done during liberal eras - the tail end of the Revolution Era, the Civil War Era, the Progressive Era, and the Sixties Era. There were some in the New Deal Era, but none of the New Deal itself was put into the Constitution. There were also none in the Jackson Era.

There are some in conservative eras, like the 22nd one, but not very many.

 

[lpetrich]

"A former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden has long resisted calls to reform the Supreme Court."

Soon after he was elected, he started a commission to consider possible changes to the Supreme Court. "It was not charged with making recommendations and cautioned that excessive change could potentially erode democracy."

Vice president Kamala Harris, who Biden endorsed for president after dropping out of the race, backed the proposal.

It’s being blasted, though, by conservatives like activist Leonard Leo, who said in a statement: “It’s about Democrats destroying a court they don’t agree with.”

FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces Bold Plan to Reform the Supreme Court and Ensure No President Is Above the Law | The White House

1. No Immunity for Crimes a Former President Committed in Office
2. Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices
3. Binding Code of Conduct for the Supreme Court

No age limits or expanding the court, however.

 

[Gospel]

• No Immunity for Crimes a Former President Committed in Office:
  • In light of the new rule stating 'No Immunity for Crimes a Former President Committed in Office,' we interpret this to mean that the sitting president has immunity as no former president is currently president and thus cannot commit crimes while in office.

• Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices:
  • Regarding the 'Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices,' which specifies an 18-year maximum, we have chosen to adopt the Neptunian calendar system. A year on Neptune lasts approximately 165 Earth years. Therefore, an 18-year term on Neptune would equate to about 2,970 Earth years.

• Binding Code of Conduct for the Supreme Court:
  • The 'Binding Code of Conduct for the Supreme Court' is hereby interpreted to be strictly binding...on all days that are not ending in Y.

The honorable

 

[Shadowy Man]

• Binding Code of Conduct for the Supreme Court:
  • The 'Binding Code of Conduct for the Supreme Court' is hereby interpreted to be strictly binding...on all days that are not ending in Y.

Oh boy! I can’t wait for Thomas to get his due tomorrow!!

 

[Gospel]

Tomorrow is never today and today ends with a Y.

 

[ZiprHead]

Clarence Thomas failed to disclose more private jet travel, senator says

Senate finance committee learned of additional undisclosed travel on Harlan Crow’s jet, says Ron Wyden

www.theguardian.com

The conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose more private travel on a jet owned by the rightwing mega-donor Harlan Crow, a Democratic senator said on Monday, amid a swirling ethics scandal and demands for judiciary reform.

“I am deeply concerned that Mr Crow may have been showering a public official with extravagant gifts, then writing off those gifts to lower his tax bill,” Ron Wyden of Oregon, the Senate finance committee chair, told a lawyer for Crow in a letter.


“This concern is only heightened by the committee’s recent discovery of additional undisclosed international travel on Mr Crow’s private jet by Justice Thomas.”

The committee, Wyden said, had “obtained international flight records showing that on 19 November 2010, Justice Thomas and his wife [the rightwing activist Ginni Thomas] flew from Hawaii to New Zealand on Mr Crow’s private jet, before flying back from New Zealand to Hawaii on the jet a week later on 27 November 2010. Mr Crow was also a passenger on these flights.

“To date, Justice Thomas has never disclosed this private jet travel on any financial disclosure forms, even though Justice Thomas has amended disclosures to reflect other international travel on Mr Crow’s private jet.”

 

[ideologyhunter]

Unfortunately, Biden is as lame as a duck can be. The fact that he speaks in a stage whisper aint the half of it.

 

[Gospel]

The stage whisper took me out

That is hella funny