#Clarence thomas

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Chris Geidner at Law Dork:

For the past 20 months, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Democrats have investigated the ongoing ethical questions surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court, and now Committee Chair Dick Durbin is sharing what they’ve found. “This report and its findings make clear that passage of the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act, which was reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 5, 2023, is a necessary step,“ the majority staff report issued on Saturday concludes, noting that more investigation is needed because “none of the justices have been directly questioned about their alleged misconduct.“ Although the investigation is coming to an end because the Democrats are losing the majority in January, Durbin released the 93-page majority staff report detailing what they were able to find — and also making public more than 800 pages of relevant supporting documents. “[T]he Supreme Court has allowed a culture of misconduct to metastasize into a full-blown crisis that has driven public opinion of the Court to historic lows,” the report states. “Justices appointed by presidents of both parties have engaged in conduct that ranges from questionable to clearly violative of federal ethics laws, and several justices have done so consistently without suffering negative consequences.” The report takes particular umbrage at the receipt of gifts by Justice Clarence Thomas, asserting, “The number, value, and extravagance of the gifts accepted by Justice Thomas have no comparison in modern American history.” It also concludes that Justice Sam Alito “has created the appearance of impropriety in several instances that necessitate his recusal in specific cases under federal law.” The report acknowledges the role that ProPublica played in advancing this inquiry, having published what the report describes as “several major exposés revealing extensive allegations of apparent ethical misconduct by sitting and former justices of the Supreme Court of the United States” — the first of which addressed Thomas’s relationship with Harlan Crow. (Notably, the report also highlights the fact that several senators, including Durbin, were looking into Thomas’s receipt of “favors” from Crow more than a decade earlier — something I’ve covered here.)

Saturday morning, the Senate Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee released a report on SCOTUS’s ethics crisis decrying the “culture of misconduct”, especially from “Justices” Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas and GOP megadonor Harlan Crow.

[republikkkanorcs]

We investigated ourselves and found us not guilty.

Harlan Crow is an openly Neo-Nazi billionaire oligarch and he is flying Clarence Thomas around the world on luxury trips and giving him millions of dollars in gifts. Crow is also one of the primary funders of the Federalist Society which selects and manipulates all the right-wing Supreme Court Justices.

🐂💩

[liberalsarecool]

Clarence Thomas can take millions in paid vacations and gifts from donors with cases before SCOTUS and Federalist Society folks will smile with pride in their corrupt creation.

[batboyblog]

Things the Biden-Harris Administration Did This Week #29

July 26-August 2 2024

President Biden announced his plan to reform the Supreme Court and make sure no President is above the law. The conservative majority on the court ruled that Trump has "absolute immunity" from any prosecution for "official acts" while he was President. In response President Biden is calling for a constitutional amendment to make it clear that Presidents aren't above the law and don't have immunity from prosecution for crimes committed while in office. In response to a wide ranging corruption scandal involving Justice Clarence Thomas, President Biden called on Congress to pass a legally binding code of ethics for the Supreme Court. The code would force Justices to disclose gifts, refrain from public political actions, and force them to recuse themselves from cases in which they or their spouses have conflicts of interest. President Biden also endorsed the idea of term limits for the Justices.

The Biden Administration sent out an email to everyone who has a federal student loan informing them of upcoming debt relief. The debt relief plan will bring the total number of a borrowers who've gotten relief from the Biden-Harris Administration to 30 million. The plan is due to be finalized this fall, and the Department of Education wanted to alert people early to allow them to be ready to quickly take advantage of it when it was in place and get relief as soon as possible.

President Biden announced that the federal government would step in and protect the pension of 600,000 Teamsters. Under the American Rescue Plan, passed by President Biden and the Democrats with no Republican votes, the government was empowered to bail out Union retirement funds which in recent years have faced devastating cut of up to 75% in some cases, leaving retired union workers in desperate situations. The Teamster union is just the latest in a number of such pension protections the President has done in office.

President Biden and Vice-President Harris oversaw the dramatic release of American hostages from Russia. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former Marine Paul Whelan held since 2018, Russian-American reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Alsu Kurmasheva convicted of criticizing the Russian Military, were all released from captivity and returned to the US at around midnight August 2nd. They were greeted on the tarmac by the President and Vice-President and their waiting families. The deal also secured the release of German medical worker Rico Krieger sentenced to death in Belarus, Russian-British opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, and 11 Russians convicted of opposing the war against Ukraine or being involved in Alexei Navalny's anti-corruption organization. Early drafts of the hostage deal were meant to include Navalny before his death in Russian custody early this year.

A new Biden Administration rule banning discrimination against LGBT students takes effect, but faces major Republican resistance. The new rule declares that Title IX protects Queer students from discrimination in public schools and any college that takes federal funds. The new rule also expands protections for victims of sexual misconduct and pregnant or parenting students. However Republican resistance means the rule can't take effect nation wide. Lawsuits from Republican controlled states, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming, means the new protections won't come into effect those states till the case is ruled on likely in a Supreme Court ruling. The Biden administration crafted these Title IX rules to reflect the Supreme Court's 2020 Bostock case.

The Biden administration awarded $2 billion to black and minority farmers who were the victims of historic discrimination. Historically black farmers have been denied important loans from the USDA, or given smaller amounts than white farmers. This massive investment will grant 23,000 minority farmers between $10,000 and $500,000 each and a further 20,000 people who wanted to start farms by were improperly denied the loans they needed between $3,500-$6,000 to get started. Most payments went to farmers in Mississippi and Alabama.

The Biden Administration took an important step to stop the criminalization of poverty by changing child safety guidelines so that poverty alone isn't grounds for taking a child into foster care. Studies show that children able to stay with parents or other family have much better outcomes then those separated. Many states have already removed poverty from their guidelines when it comes to removing children from the home, and the HHS guidelines push the remaining states to do the same.

Vice-President Harris announced the Biden Administration's agreement to a plan by North Carolina to forgive the state's medical debt. The plan by Democratic Governor Roy Cooper would forgive the medical debt of 2 million people in the state. North Carolina has the 3rd highest rate of medical debt in the nation. Vice-President Harris applauded the plan, pointing out that the Biden Administration has forgiven $650 million dollars worth of medical debt so far with plans to forgive up to $7 billion by 2026. The Vice-President unveiled plans to exclude medical debt from credit scores and issued a call for states and local governments to forgive debt, like North Carolina is, last month.

The Department of Transportation put forward a new rule to bank junk fees for family air travel. The new rule forces airlines to seat parents next to their children, with no extra cost. Currently parents are forced to pay extra to assure they are seated next to their children, no matter what age, if they don't they run the risk of being separated on a long flight. Airlines would be required to seat children age 13 and under with their parent or accompanying adult at no extra charge.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced it is giving $3.5 billion to combat homelessness. This represents the single largest one year investment in fighting homelessness in HUD's history. The money will be distributed by grants to local organizations and programs. HUD has a special focus on survivors of domestic violence, youth homeless, and people experiencing the unique challenges of homelessness in rural areas.

The Treasury Department announced that Pennsylvania and New Mexico would be joining the IRS' direct file program for 2025. The program was tested as a pilot in a number of states in 2024, saving 140,000 tax payers $5.6 million in filing charges and getting tax returns of $90 million. The program, paid for by President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, will be available to all 50 states, but Republicans strong object. Pennsylvania and New Mexico join Oregon and New Jersey in being new states to join.

Bonus: President Biden with the families of the released hostages calling their loved ones on the plane out of Russia

[aunti-christ-ine]

[reality-detective]

History and probably hidden history about Justice Clarence Thomas 🤔

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

That’s Neo-Nazi billionaire Harlan Crow standing to the right of Ted Cruz. Crow is the top founder and primary director of the Federalist Society that selects far-right Republican judges. He is also the oligarch that selected Thomas and heaped millions of dollars in gifts to him. Crow sent his private jet to DC to pick up Cruz and SCOTUS justice Clarence Thomas and bring them to Crow’s Texas mansion to swear in Ho. The ceremony took place in Crow’s library alongside his autographed copy of Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf. Just outside is his dictator garden with larger than life statues of Crow’s favorite dictators throughout history. Crow’s brother Trammel, who is under indictment for child sex trafficking, was just outside the photo. It must be nice to be able to summon Justices, federal judges, and US Senator’s at will. This is a glaring example of how oligarchs literally control a political party and the judiciary.

[thepolyamorouspolymath]

I still think we are not talking enough about the fact that two of the judges on SCOTUS ruling on women's rights have been credibly accused of sexual harassment or assault during their confirmation hearings.

I feel like with the fact that their overturning Roe is one of the most effective talking points for Dems, this part should get brought up more. Bc I'm not sure that most women under 40 remember that Clarence Thomas is not only corrupt as fuck, but even when nominated to the Court, he was accused of sexual harassment of a woman named Anita Hill who was told that it "wasn't that bad".

[trump666traitor]

[politijohn]

Source

Nothing to see here!

[nodynasty4us]

From the December 21, 2023 opinion piece:

Lavish world cruises, secret deals with moneyed donors, threats to step down unless someone ponied up with a pay raise, fishing trips with parties who have business before the court, an amicus brief industrial complex wholly bought and paid for by billionaire donations, leaked drafts, and secret speeches are not the stuff of constitutional democracy, or infallibility, or finality. When the hyperpolitical supercharged Trump cases catch up with the court—and that is beginning to happen, right now, this week—all that stench will run headlong into the questions about why the husband of the woman who went to the pep rally for the insurrection and the folks who lied to us all about Dobbs are objective enough to decide the outcome of an election. The same people entrusted with the protecting the reputation of the court have blundered into being wholly responsible for protecting democracy. Not one thing suggests they will take the latter any more seriously than they took the former.

[odinsblog]

This is an illegitimate and deeply corrupt Supreme Court

[liberalsarecool]

Clarence Thomas categorically destroys judicial impartiality. A society can't function with this conservative orchestrated corruption.

[drilpencils]

[foreverlogical]

[republikkkanorcs]