Clarence Thomas’ wife sparks effort to impose tougher Supreme Court ethics
Last week it was revealed that Thomas’ wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, was part of a secret group that hoped to advance the conservative agenda. She had previously founded Liberty Central, a conservative nonprofit advocacy group that opposed the Affordable Care Act.
Scalia and Thomas have also participated in secretive political strategy sessions hosted by Koch Industries.
Actually, the sponsors of the bill are all Democrats, progressives for the most part (Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) – my representative! – Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). They are the ones who were “sparked” by the Justice Thomas and his humble stay at home wife money grubbing lobbyist and wingnut welfare recipient, Ginny. The bill has no chance of passing out of committee in the House (or the Senate for that matter), so it is, in effect, a political statement, and one not likely to garner much national attention outside the states of its sponsors, since our corporate media is as ethically challenged as are the Tom and Ginny Thomas. I had to laugh, however, when I read the story after first reading the headline. Still, any hypothetical Onion story with that headline probably would have been funnier.
By the By, Clarence Thomas is truly an Uncle Tom, so there’s that.
Ps. Here’s hoping his nephew has recovered fully from being punched, tasered and his resultant epileptic seizure.
Good to see you, Steven.
Too bad there’s not the political numbers or political will to impeach a few Supreme Court justices for their “high crimes and misdemeanors” and to convict and remove them. Judges have been impeached for less. All of the majority five belong in that group because of the ridiculousness of the Voting Rights Act decision denying current racial discrimination alone.
Roberts should absolutely be impeached for lying to Congress about his intentions, and “not having an agenda”. His (cynical) slogan about being “an umpire” was especially egregious, since he has turned out to be not an umpire but the goddamed Head Coach of Team Conservative. His testimony is filled with lies about about being a judicial moderate, “respectful” of precedent, when he was/is nothing of the sort.
I suppose one could argue that the useless Dems knew he was lying through his teeth and didn’t want to raise too much of a stink about it. True Dem-haters would say they wanted to covertly place another pro-corporate rightwing extremist on the Court. I think Reid has said that Roberts lied to the senators about his intentions.
But this turd will be Chief Justice for another 30 years.
I hate to say this but I don’t think there is any mechanism to impeach a Justice. I guess if you include them in “civil officers” but that may be a stretch, especially since it’s included in Article 2 and not in Article 3.
They can be impeached. Abe Fortas resigned back in the LBJ days after he was threatened with impeachment.
Samuel Chase is the only justice to be impeached though he was acquitted by the Senate.
The same guy that’s on the $10,000 bill?
Excellent work going to the constitution, but Art III judges have long been considered “civil officers of the US” (they are the highest officers of the federal courts), and Art III conditions their (lifetime) appointments upon “Good Behavior”, which is arguably a lesser standard than the “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” of Art II.
Many Art III judges have been impeached, tried and removed from office over the centuries, but no Justices, as Steven observes. So it’s high time, Roberts!
Guess I was wrong. Still impeaching a Justice would be as politically dangerous as impeaching a President. It would have to be something dramatic to make it happen and it won’t ever happen for this group of Justices with a GOP House.
Does “Good Behavior” preclude sexting?
In a healthy republic, the outrageous behavior of these two conservative male activists masquerading as “justices” would be a national story, as would the shenanigans of Thomas’s conservative operative wife. Repubs won’t confirm males for judgeships if their wives have donated to or supported pro-choice groups, but IOKIYAR of course. Anyway, the obvious bias and political corruption of our highest court is not considered a story by our useless and corrupt corporate media, and this is probably the main reason that our failing nation has no hope of reforming itself. So yeah, it’s pretty safe to assume this bill will never get out of committee, haha.
Putting Thomas on the Court is really one of the greatest scandals of the entire “conservative” era. The cynical placing of this young, largely unqualified manufactured black “conservative” to replace Thurgood Marshall was a catastrophe of the highest order morally, and probably one of the things that gives white “conservatives” their greatest satisfaction as they look back on their destruction of our national institutions. Thurgood Marshall said he wouldn’t mind seeing a “negro” succeed to his seat, but not “the wrong negro”. Well, we definitely got the “wrong negro”, Justice Marshall.
Thus we have the appalling situation of our lone black “justice” working tirelessly to gut anti-discrimination laws (accomplished), abolish affirmative action (basically accomplished), suppress minority voting (basically accomplished) and even (of all atrocities) being the 5th vote to strike down the Voting Rights Act(!) Somehow I don’t think that any of this does much good for the African American population of the nation, nor was any of it mandated by a sane view of the constitution or prior precedent. How in the world is Clarence viewed by the black community? That this carnage is now the legacy of Marshall’s seat is truly a Clarence in Wonderland situation. Up is down, etc.
I have to wonder what this guy is really going to be thinking on his deathbed, which is the only way the nation will ever be done with his disastrous “service”. I guess Clarence’s all-consuming hatred of the lib’ruls who “lynched” him at his confirmation hearing is about the only thing that motivates him, and his only goal is to destroy everything they ever worked for. He has done his work well. A pity that he had to wreck the (limited) legal protections accorded to oppressed minorities in order to get at these hated white lib’ruls, but collateral damage, I guess…
In his own mind, Thomas has transcended race; he’s not black, African-American, or a negro. He’s just pissed that affirmative action denied him the opportunity to demonstrate his superiority.
I hadn’t heard about the incident involving Thomas’ nephew. If the incident was in fact sparked by a suicide attempt, I hope he’s gotten the mental health care he needed, too. (I’m gonna skip the “I’d kill myself too if Clarence Thomas was my uncle” jokes – I’ve lost enough friends to suicide over the years that it’s not something I like to be flippant about.)
Note also that Derek Thomas’s treatment happened in good ol’ Jefferson Parish, the white bastion that stationed armed cops on the bridge to keep drowning New Orleanians from fleeing during Katrina. Good times.
I’m sure the tasing of Clarence’s nephew was just another unfortunate “axeedent” that seem to happen to black folks in that parish….this bein’ post-racial America and all, according to Roberts Repubs (including Uncle Clarence).
Talk about squatting in Justice Marshall’s seat….