The United States Supreme Court revealed what some justices touted as a landmark new ethics code last year.
But critics noted that the scandal-plagued institution’s new rules lacked any enforcement mechanisms, making them essentially a 14-page long list of suggestions.
A new leak of secret discussions from behind the bench, published in The New York Times Tuesday, reveals which justices fought to keep the code of conduct toothless.
The Times reported that the court’s nine justices started passing ultra-confidential memos, kept in paper envelopes and off email servers, back and forth at the end of last summer.
The Times reported that the court’s nine justices started passing ultra-confidential memos, kept in paper envelopes and off email servers, back and forth at the end of last summer.
Jesus fucking Christ learn some real OpSec this is just dumb shit, no wonder there’s so many fucking leaks.
The court’s three liberal justices—Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson—all advocated for some form of enforcement
Also
The justices however gave themselves a broad carve-out for book deals and sales. Justice Sotomayor, who received $3.7 million for her memoir and her children’s books, came under fire for using court staff for her book events after being appointed to the court in 2009. Now, justices have explicit permission to use staff for such endeavors.
The code states that justices should not be “swayed by partisan interests.”
“These new rules are more loophole than law,” wrote Michael Waldman, the president of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law, after the final document, signed by all nine justices, was released last year.
Eventually, some clerk or staffer is gonna spend a lot of time in jail but also become a folk hero.
But, as they traded memos, Justice Neil Gorsuch emerged as a fervent objector to the idea that the code be anything more than voluntary, the Times said.
Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito apparently backed him up, arguing against critics of the court as bad faith actors.
Bull fucking shit. They knew full well that complaints were legitimate and not in bad faith. Them saying critics are bad faith actors is the bad faith act.
These people need consequences for their corruption.
Not going to happen. Sorry, the world got taken over by fascists when the twin towers fell. That was the act that cemented their power. Everything since then has been an illusion of propaganda. Keep your head down and lick the boot on your neck or they send you to prison or make your kids orphans to be crushed and ground into fuel for the economy that serves the desires of the few over the needs of the many.
Gorsuch, Thomas and Alito
As expected.
I get the sense that she is less “corrupt” and more “complete and total adherence to strict laws, mostly biblical laws.”
