‘Corrupt as hell’: Clarence Thomas faces fresh calls to resign after more billionaire gifts revealed
‘Corrupt as hell’: Clarence Thomas faces fresh calls to resign after more billionaire gifts revealed
Congressional Democrats have pushed for ethics reform legislation, efforts publicly rejected by Samuel Alito
Congressional Democrats have pushed for ethics reform legislation, efforts publicly rejected by Samuel Alito
They can call for him to resign all they want. He won't. And he doesn't have to. We have a SCOTUS who is accountable to no one and can get away with anything. They're like the Mullahs of Iran.
174I'm not American, so maybe that's a stupid question, but is there really nothing the rest of the government can do about it?
29Ironically, in an attempt to make SCOTUS as non-political as possible, our Constitution sets a very high threshhold for removal of a sitting federal judge. You need 67 out of 100 Senators to vote for removal. Our senate is roughly 50/50 split, give or take a couple of people, divided almost evenly between the two parties. And those parties are so deeply divided that it's all but impossible to get up to the 67 people needed to remove a judge, making the threat of impeachment toothless. Any Republican right now who would side with Democrats to remove a Republican judge would be committing political suicide.
In other words, yes, Clarence Thomas can continue to receive bribes with literal impunity. The only other non-partisan methods of removing him are referral to our Department of Justice for a criminal inquiry. But our current leader of the DOJ is a spineless coward afraid of his own shadow, and even if he were to act, the entire process of investigation, charges, trial, impeachment, and removal would take so long that he'd likely be dead of old age before he was removed.
30There are checks and balances. They only work when the government operates in good faith.
22In theory they can do something about it but because in America there's only 2 parties in power, with one parry's identity being "opposing the other party no matter what" rather than serving the people of the country, they'll never reach the consensus necessary to actually remove the judge.
In most countries there's multiple parties in power so negotiation is typically mandatory and a consensus for action can often be found. In the US that's virtually impossible because the 2 parties hate each other and there's no other alternative.
4Congress could impeach him in a hot second, if most of them weren't either on his side, or doing the same thing.
1
They have to expand and term limit SCOTUS. Dilute his power, incentivize good behavior and force him out eventually
5You might be underselling Iran. Even the Supreme Leader can theoretically be removed from office, in the same sense that Thomas can theoretically be removed.
2
We've known this dude was a piece of shit since the Anita Hill trial in the 90's. This motherfucker has been corrupt since the start, he doesn't give a shit about anyone but himself, just like every other rich fuck in this country. So hes not the exception here by any means, he just didn't really make much of an effort to hide it.
118He doesn't care, and none of the elite/handlers do, because it took 25 years for the blatant corruption to be exposed and make national headlines.
I could understand if it took a few years, but 20+ reinforces what most of us already know; journalism is a captured industry, and most "news" exists as a for-profit tool to manufacture consent.
31Keep us all angry and afraid fighting with each other while the plutocracy consolidates more resources and power.
7
And since his wife was active in the plot to overthrow the government, it's a safe bet he was in the know as well.
80I don’t understand how this isn’t a criminal matter. If nothing else, it violates the Ethics in Government Act. Is there no law against soliciting and accepting bribes?
59BRIBES yes, but gifts cause he's a super special boy? Not at all.
But like really you can't fix busted to hell, the system is corrupt to the top and taking out one mouthpiece won't change that
27I don’t understand how this isn’t a criminal matter. If nothing else, it violates the Ethics in Government Act. Is there no law against soliciting and accepting bribes?
This was discussed yesterday on one of the talking heads shows. The problem is that there's little to nothing in the act regarding enforcement or punishment. So basically, it comes down to this:
EIGA: Don't accept bribes. Bribes are bad.
Thomas: Nah, I'll take them anyway. What are you going to do about it. EIGA: .....Even if he were to be found guilty of a crime, it would be up to Congress to enforce the Constitutional provision about being in good standing. Which puts us right back to where we are now: If congress were willing to do that, they'd already be doing it and we wouldn't be having this discussion in the first place.
11
He should not be allowed to resign.
He should be censured, impeached, stripped of title and power, then replaced....and ultimately charged and tried.
44Fuck corrupt politicians, in the ass, with a cactus
40Yeah, and corrupt judges
12Instructions unclear, but I'm pretty sure we're gonna run out of cacti.
4
I'd prefer to fuck them with a dildo laden with fishing hooks, but to each their own.
5At least make em rusty fish hooks....
3
As if this piece of shit would ever resign. He has immense power. He loves it. He'll never give it up. And he revels in our inability to do fuck-all about it.
38Is there any corner of American politics and business that isn't corrupt?
32We don't use that word. Corruption and bribery sounds icky.
Try lobbying instead.
17Well, there's Bernie Sanders and...
Well, there's Bernie Sanders.
13That's a good shout. Forgot about that guy. He got stiffed in 2016, probably his last chance. I appreciate the unwavering adherence to principles of people like Ron Paul. Politics done the old fashioned way. The money is a huge problem.
2
Nope, all working as designed.
9
At least lock up his sedition wife.
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29What are they going to do, take him to court?
6Could he face criminal charges? (Assuming he has committed a criminal offence)
1
At any point in time since 2016 you can bet that at least 50 million Americans have adopted an 'anything goes' attitude towards people who share their conservative values. Next election is going to be historic and the part of me that is dead is really excited about it.
6In America politicians have no shame, and due to population density, you can't organize an effective enough protest here.
4He doesn't have to do anything. He can just ignore everyone and he gets to keep his job. There simply isn't a check and balance for corrupt appointed judges, other than increasing the number of justices, which Biden has explicitly said he won't do.
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23Would be nice, there is a system in place, but it would require 2 parties to vote together, which won't happen
7
There really does need to be additional checks on Supreme Court Justices, because Congress clearly isn't doing its job. Both the Executive and the Legislative branches are directly answerable to voters, yet the Judicial branch is strangely absent from that ongoing check on their power. I get that we don't want Supreme Court Justices having to campaign for their position, but at the same time, voters should have some direct say in who gets to stay. We clearly had at least two unqualified justices added to the Court under Trump that should not be there.
In the history of the Supreme Court, only one Judge has actually been impeached, but wasn't removed. Another ended up resigning after impeachment was threatened, but that's likely when people actually had a sense of shame and resigned when they were caught doing something wrong. We're at a point now though where one part will simply deny reality and/or any wrong-doing, claim it's just the other side being political, and ignore it.
So calling for him to resign is just sort of a nice-to-say thing I guess, at least it's on record that somebody said it, but it will ultimately go nowhere.
23My desired state is that every governmental position at the senior level is subject to voter recall regardless of whether they are appointed or elected. All of them. I would still expect a high bar to be met to trigger that recall threshold, but the people should ALWAYS be the final say on those in power over them.
8Another ended up resigning after impeachment was threatened, but that’s likely when people actually had a sense of shame and resigned when they were caught doing something wrong.
Different times. Today, he can hide behind the law and beefed up security. The absolutely worst that could happen to him is that he resigns or is removed in disgrace, but he gets to keep all of the ill-gotten gains he's collected over the years. Try that back then and there's a very real possibility that he'd have been dragged out into the streets and hanged if he refused to resign. Especially considering he's black.
Today, it's "Can you resign? Pretty please? No? Aw, shucks."
Back then, it was "Resign or be hanged, asshole."
0Ask yourself this: why is the circuit that covers the largest and most populous area not currently represented? Why is a court that speaks for the entire country disproportionately represented by people from the Tri Cities and DC?
The SCOTUS doesn't represent America, it represents an East Coast elite America that turns its head away from the harsh realities of working class Americans in Midwestern and Western America.
-1if it's the East Coast Elite running the supreme court, then how come they're doing regressive dumb shit like overturning Roe vs Wade and putting a stop to student loan forgiveness? How did either of these things help with the "harsh realities of working class Americans in Midwestern and Western America" ?
2
Fuck this guy.
If it's all above board why didn't he declare it all when the first gift was revealed?
23Motherfucker doesn’t care. Fuck that guy and his wife. Fuck
12Traitors, both he and his wife.
11I’ve given up on being bothered by this disaster of a political system. Now, it’s time to just sit back and laugh at all the futile attempts to reign in the corruption and criminal acts of this absolutely repugnant political party.
9Are those judges above the law? What a weird system.
7No, but about half of the Senate isn't going to hold him accountable.
8
Excuse the ignorance from my side, but do the courts in the VS not have a regulatory organ somewhere?
And is this clown appointed? If so is he a GOP or a democrat?
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4Unfortunately, nothing will happen and he'll die as a justice on the SCOTUS.
1Does anyone know which statute(s) he could be charged under?
-2