#1603 Clarence Thomas and the Highest Court in the Land with the Lowest Standards of Ethics
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.6 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2024
⏱️ 54 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Air Date 1/13/2024
The Supreme Court began to lose its legitimacy in the eyes of many when President Obama wasn't allowed to fill the open seat left by the death of Antonin Scalia but, in truth, the scandal and manipulation of the nation's highest court go back much, much farther than that. However, in a bygone age, scandal was handled much differently than today, putting our current state of disfunction and hyper-partisanship into sharp focus.
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SHOW NOTES
I think they are reaching a point—the six-justice majority— of getting a huge backlash… I don't call for the impeachment of Justices very easily. In case after case these Justices come down on the side of artificial entities called corporations
Ch. 2: Astonishing Corruption at The Supreme Court? - LegalEagle - Air Date 5-6-23
Ethics? Never heard of it
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) used a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Supreme Court ethics on Tuesday to discuss the financial ties between Justice Clarence Thomas and conservative billionaire Harlan Crow.
Ch. 4: EXPOSED: Supreme Court Corruption CAUGHT Red Handed - The Kyle Kulinski Show - Air Date 4-27-23
Looking at Neil Gorsuch's questionable property sale and Clarence Thomas' refusal to answer to congress
Ch. 5: Clarence Thomas Grifting - The Muckrake Political Podcast - Air Date 12-19-23
They shift to another bombshell report about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's taking advantage of his position to enrich his lifestyle.
The nine Supreme Court justices handed down a surprise unanimous decision binding themselves to a new code of ethics. It comes after criticism over undisclosed perks for some of the justices.
Ch. 7: How to Fix a Broken Supreme Court - Robert Reich - Air Date 7-18-23
Justice Roberts refused to testify in a hearing on SCOTUS ethics. Thomas and Alito accepted luxury vacations from GOP megadonors. Gorsuch sold property to the CEO of a law firm that argues cases before the Court.
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
New York Times investigative reporter Jodi Kantor joins Chris Hayes to discuss her behind-the-scenes look into the dismantling of Roe
Ch. 9: Supreme Court Scandals: A Story of Justice - Now & Then - Air Date 4-26-23
Samuel Chase’s impeachment over his pronounced Federalist leanings, Stephen J. Field’s 1880s relationships with railroad magnates, and Abe Fortas’ 1969 resignation following the revelation of his acceptance of consulting fees from a felonious financier
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 10: Final comments on John Roberts' year-end report and the slide away from the possibility of accountability
Article: Chief Justice John Roberts’ AI Report Reads Like an Old Robot Wrote It
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions)
SHOW IMAGE:
Description: A close-up photograph of the entrance of the U.S. Supreme Court building. White stone columns partly lit by sun slightly obscure the dark wooden entryway door at the center in shadow.
Credit: "Supreme Court of the United States Facade" by Leandro Paes Leme, Pexels | License | Changes: Cropped
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of the Left podcast in which we will look at the most recent wave of scandal and manipulation of the nation's highest court, |
| 0:12.7 | as well as historical controversies that go back much, much farther than that. |
| 0:17.2 | However, in a bygone age, scandal was handled much differently than today, |
| 0:21.6 | putting our current state of dysfunction and |
| 0:23.8 | hyper-partisanship into sharp focus. |
| 0:26.7 | Sources today include the Ralph Nana Radio Hour, |
| 0:29.8 | Legal Eagle, the majority report, |
| 0:32.4 | the Kyle Kalinsky show, the Muck Rake political podcast, |
| 0:36.0 | the PBS News Hour, and Robert Reich, with additional members only clips from All In |
| 0:41.0 | with Chris Hayes, and now and then. |
| 0:49.0 | The corruption of Clarence Thomas has been documented by ProPublico, the New York Times, an article after |
| 0:56.5 | article. |
| 0:57.5 | He's gone on these junkets by billionaires, he's accepted huge gifts that he is not disclosed. |
| 1:03.9 | It's because until very recently there were no ethic codes |
| 1:06.8 | applying to Supreme Court justices |
| 1:09.1 | the way they apply to lower federal court judges. And now they have a weak new code of ethics but they leave |
| 1:16.6 | its enforcement up to each Supreme Court justice which you know makes a mockery of satire. So what we're seeing here are mealy mouth |
| 1:27.0 | Democrats investigating in the Senate Clarence Thomas and to some extent Justice Alito's freebies and junket and not |
| 1:36.8 | calling for the resignation. The columnist for the Washington Post, a Harvard law grad |
| 1:41.8 | Ruth Marcus just had a column demanding that |
| 1:44.7 | Clarence Thomas recused himself in the upcoming decision about Trump's |
| 1:49.9 | assertion that he's immune from prosecution because what he did occurred when he was exercising |
... |
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