Capitol Hill Blue Forums Capitol Hill Blue Opinions CHB Columnists The utter corruption of SCOTUS

I'm fed up.

I retired from the practice of law last month after 39 years. I still have a "legal" brain and sensibilities. I've appeared before judges at every level from municipal court to the U.S. Supreme Court, so this is based upon my personal experience and observation. During that time, I have watched the deterioration of the bench at both the State and federal level, and it's not by accident.

There were always judges who were marginally competent (usually in rural areas where they were elected by votes in the hundreds and the GOBLN (Good Ol'Boy Legal Network - we used to describe it as "fighting the goblins", or "being hometowned") was in full swing). But, by and large, the judges were experienced attorneys who took their role seriously and tried their best to be balanced jurists. Even "conservative" judges (as it used to apply in the judiciary) were fair and predictable in their approaches.

The problem we have now, is that so many line judges are inexperienced (see Judge Aileen Cannon), or extremely ideologically bent (See Judges Aileen Cannon, Matthew Kacsmaryk), and for the federal judiciary in particular, judges/Justices are chosen not for their legal acumen, but for ideological predictability (see, Justices Alito, Barrett, Gorsuch and Thomas). This is particularly the result of political manipulation of the appointment process. Since Ronald Reagan, the standards have been deliberately skewed to achieve particular results, and it shows.

That was obvious in Bush v. Gore, which was legally inexcusable, but even more apparent with the current SCOTUS cabal ("a secret political clique or faction"). The current treatment of the question of Presidential immunity demonstrates the problem, in spades. The Court had the opportunity to address this question in December, but ducked it. Had they taken it then, it would have kept the potential trial on track. I think I suggested, then, that this was a delay tactic.

The fact that they took the case now, and changed the issue before it, demonstrates the intention to delay all of the trials as long as they can get away with.
I am thoroughly disgusted and am concerned that SCOTUS is irreparably corrupted.

I've expressed my view that Clarence Thomas was never qualified for the Supreme Court, but that was well before his utter corruption became public. Now, there is no excuse not to impeach him. But he is not alone. I am aware of the questionable financial behavior of many of the Justices (even Democratically-appointed ones, although those are far more limited).

But, the biggest problem today, and for the future of the country (and the impetus for this thread), is that they, and their counterparts all the way down the food chain, have been so corrupted by the political process of their appointment that they are incapable of ruling based upon the law and the Constitution. Because they have lifetime appointments, and because they are beholden to, and protected by, their party, they are abusing their positions and destroying the greatest tradition of our heritage - the American Common Law, enshrined in the Constitution. ("ARTICLE VII. In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.")

There is only one reason why the SCOTUS would rule in favor of Trump - they want an America that is Christian-law based, with authoritarian fascism and Trump is the one who will do it. It's just that simple. Trump delivered three religious SCOTUS judges for pete's sake. These people think that Trump is the anointed one to bring Christian Nationalism to America.. These people see Trump as the person to destroy in order to rebuild. Trump brought white Christian nationalism to government during his term and Trump is leaning into the idea that he is divinely ordained to deliver America from evil doers like Democrats.



People like these SCOTUS judges who support Trump want to:

— End gay marriage and criminalize being trans.
— Outlaw abortion and most forms of birth control.
— End the teaching of Black history.
— Outlaw DEI and affirmative action of any sort.
— Shut down most functions of the EPA so the fossil fuel and chemical industries can do whatever they want to our air and water.
— End enforcement of our anti-monopoly laws.
— Fire thousands of IRS investigators to make America safe for morbidly rich tax cheats.
— Shut down all “green” initiatives and instead “drill, baby drill.”
— Sell off public lands and parks to the highest bidders.
— Privatize Social Security and end traditional Medicare
— End federal funding for public schools and colleges.
— Outlaw unions.

All of the above has its roots in Christian Nationalism and Project 2025 a think tank planning for all the above should Trump get back into office.

Can you imagine how much better the world be would have been with Al Gore as POTUS instead of GW Bush? 9/11 probably would not have happened and the U.S. would never have gone to Iraq.

Every imaginable horrible thing in the world in the past 50 years can be directly tied to conservatism in some form. (ISIS, al Qaeda, Zionism, Christian Nationalism). Least we forget that today's border crisis is the residual effects of conservative polices of Reagan's and GHWBush's meddling in Central America in the 80s and 90s.

Thomas' wife Ginny was one of the organizers of J6. Nothing has happened her. She planned and paid for participants to ride in buses to D.C.

Ginny, Roger Stone, Bannon, and of course Trump...a special class of Americans who are gifted a set of powers no one else has:
Immunity from, not just prosecution but any kind of accountability, or justice.
America is now poised to become the very thing we used to reject from the bowels of despots and tyrants in the corrupt third world.

In fact we seem to have skipped over The Second World entirely, so eager are our cultists to shoulder their self imposed yoke.
They love it so much they are determined to put it on us.

How corrupt is the SCOTUS? On Trump's appeal, Trump's attorneys argued that his efforts to overturn the 2020 election were “official acts” and that all presidents have “absolute immunity” while in office and for the rest of their lives thereafter.

Nobody took it seriously. Even the appeals court his bid first went to pointed out how absurd it was.

The answer from Trump’s attorney D. John Sauer was that Trump can’t be prosecuted unless he’s first impeached, which, as noted, is absurd on its face. Under this logic, President Biden could today order Trump assassinated and dare Congress to impeach him for it.

Republicans on the Court have, for almost a century, taken the side of autocracy over democracy, billionaires over workers, and corporations over consumers and the environment.

— They tell us that corporations are “persons” with rights under the Bill of Rights.
— They tell us when morbidly rich people or massive corporations bribe politicians that that’s merely their “First Amendment free speech” right.
— They ruled that American women and girls must live under rules established in the 17th century
— They repeatedly knock down the rights of people living in red states to vote.
— They make it harder for unions to function.
— They gutted Obamacare.
— They ruled that it’s okay to discriminate against gay people.
— They flooded our nation with guns.
— They encourage monopoly.
— They put shackles on the EPA, ruling that it can’t regulate carbon dioxide.

And now they’re doing everything they can to get Donald Trump back into office so Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito, both well into their seventies, can retire confident in the knowledge they’ll be replaced by rightwing judges chosen by the Federalist Society.

At least Chief Justice Rehnquist had the good sense in 1074 to recuse himself in the US v Nixon case because of his close ties to the Nixon administration. Today, Clarence Thomas’ wife was deeply involved in J6 and he won’t even consider a recusal.

The Court was given this case weeks ago, with a detailed unanimous decision by the DC appeals court that they could have simply let stand. Alternatively, they could have scheduled a hearing for the day after they got the case. They could have heard arguments and even rendered a decision by now.

The court introduced what will be at least a 130-day delay in Trump’s trial. They won’t even hear arguments until April 22. Democracy be damned.

During Trump's tenure, and with Mitch McConnells help, Trump put three radicals on the Supreme Court and several hundred crackpot, unqualified judges on the federal bench.

Now the six corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court are going out of their way to give him the delays he wants so he can stay out of jail and continue his campaign to end our American way of life.

<<CLICK>>

Was that another piece falling into place? Dunno. Maybe it was an ear mite!

Note that Justice Thomas did not recuse himself from today's Trump v. Anderson decision.

I noticed, last night, that Justice Thomas didn't appear when Biden was speaking. Seems that he also has bad manners. If the Dems take it then the first thing they should do is something about SCOTUS. Not only taking care of Justice Thomas but giving them rules to live with or leave.