We don’t need no stinkin’ code.
As we know, “government ethics” can be a very slippery concept. That’s why We The People have insisted that every public official — from Congress critters to dog catchers — swear to abide by some minimum standard of proper behavior. Not that all will honor it, but a code of ethics provides a measure of legal action against those who are grabbers and grifters.
How bizarre, then, that the nine members of our august Supreme Court, America’s highest legal authority, have discretely refused to apply ethical rules to themselves, claiming that their group don’t need no stinkin’ code, because ... well, they are supreme! Chief Justice John Roberts himself assures us that each justice will always make the right ethical call because, “They are jurists of exceptional integrity and experience.”
Does he think we have sucker wrappers around our heads? Some of these black-robed “honorables” regularly engage in petty thievery, taking corporate-funded junkets to luxury resorts, getting free membership in exclusive golf clubs and accepting assorted “gifts” from special interests. Clarence Thomas is the current king of handouts, taking thousands of dollars’ in freebies, including even such pedestrian gimmies as car tires and cigars. Thomas, a 31-year lifer on the court, draws $230,000 a year from taxpayers. Can’t he buy his own cigars? No one would buy stuff for him — except to influence his decisions!
But there’s also the case of Thomas’ wife, Ginni. Her recent far-out political effort to overthrow the people’s 2020 presidential vote shows that her husband Clarence — the dogmatic Supreme Court reactionary — is not the nuttiest member of the Thomas household! He’s the best known of the duo, but wife Ginni has quietly been moving into the top circle of unhinged political conspiracy activists.
Biden’s defeat of Trump in 2020 set off this supremely connected partisan like an explosion in a fireworks factory. She spewed out a weeks-long barrage of text messages to Donald Trump’s chief of staff demanding that Republicans use the Court to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s victory. Ginni instructed the White House to “Release the Kraken.” Huh? Kraken, the name of a mythological sea monster, was used by manic right-wingers as code for a package of kooky lawsuits they hoped judges would file to put Trump back in power.
Ginni Thomas was not merely someone babbling free-speech opinions — she was a powerful political plotter actively strategizing to have unelected judges usurp the people’s democratic authority. This was too crazy even for the right-wing Republicans now running the high court — except for one. Guess who? Yes, despite his obvious conflict of interest, Clarence used his position to try to advance election cases in which his spouse had a personal stake.
Was he punished for violating the ethics code? No, because the U.S. Supreme Court has no ethics code! None whatsoever. Trust us, say the mighty justices — each of us will be the judge of our own ethics.
Most damning, though, is the grand larceny of the Court’s six right-wing extremists, who’ve turned what’s meant to be a citadel of democracy into a Republican rubber stamp for plutocracy. They’ve stolen the integrity of the Court itself, rigging their procedures and rulings to profit moneyed interests, suppress voting rights, hogtie workers, and generally run roughshod over the needs and democratic ideals of America’s majority.
To help stop this disgraceful corruption of justice by so-called justices, go to FixTheCourt.com.
