SCOTUS Watch: Financial Disclosure

Fix The Court provided an analysis of the gifts received by SCOTUS justices for the last twenty years. Justice Thomas stands out by a ridiculous margin. Alito and Scalia come up a respectable second. Justice Stevens is a distant third. 

Other justices might have things to answer for but Thomas truly is the king of SCOTUS grift. And, who the heck would give Brett Kavanaugh a six-figure book payment? The article also reports that Thomas finally got around to disclosing two instances of Harlan Crow largesse (his Senate subpoena is still pending) while leaving out many more. 

In a sane world, Justice Thomas would have long been investigated by a House impeachment proceeding for financial wrongdoing, including failure to disclose millions of gifts (ProPublica per the article estimates just one trip costing $500K). Not to worry:

At the Judicial Conference meeting in March, the head of the conference said a committee is still examining the allegations from lawmakers.

He is guilty of "bad behavior," which violates the basic requirement of being a federal judge. If the Democrats win the House, they should start an impeachment investigation. Justice Fortas resigned for a lot less.

Justice Jackson getting a few thousand dollars worth of Beyonce tickets and Sotomayor getting lucrative book deals are things to keep your eye on. Financial disclosure does not only include the ridiculous corruption of the likes of Thomas and Alito. So, let's have sunlight across the board.

The same is true with court ethics as a whole. Ethics should not be a partisan issue. McCain-Feingold supported campaign finance legislation as a bipartisan team. Morality and ethics should be a universal good.

The point holds that the blatant guilty parties are found on one side. Noticeably, not everyone on the side is equally corrupt. Nonetheless, ethical reform should be a non-partisan issue. It's not. Wonder why. 

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In MAYBE an ounce of justice is coming news, a federal judge has ordered Stephen Bannon -- who could have been in prison for multiple crimes at this point -- to report for his few month prison sentence for stonewalling Congress during the 1/6 investigation a few years back.

Meanwhile, Trump's son-in-law continues to act like an anti-American scumbag, using his connections to help enemies of our nation and way of life (see also, his friendship with the Saudi prince behind the murder of an American journalist). 

This is all generally relevant since Thomas and Alito are MAGA supporters. After all, with Trump, Thomas enjoys watching his former clerks become federal judges.