SCOTUS

[BigPiney]

I got to listen to some of the oral arguments. It sounded like from their questions that Roberts and Kavanaugh were pretty skeptical of the way the plaintiffs were trying to interpret this clause in the Constitution, so I'm hopeful. In a nutshell, if the plaintiffs prevail it means there can be basically no checks on legislatures by Governors, state courts or even state constitutions in regards to election laws. It's an absurd misapplication of originalist theory.

I think I heard something about this on NPR last week. Essentially they are pointing to some obscure draft document that was never even debated at the constitutional convention or something like that.

[MartyFunkhouser]

https://www.propublica.org/article/c...vel-gifts-crow

This is a problem if true. If this report it is accurate, I believe it is time for Justice Thomas to step down.

[Uncle Ted]

https://www.propublica.org/article/c...vel-gifts-crow

This is a problem if true. If this report it is accurate, I believe it is time for Justice Thomas to step down.

Sounds like Clarence was just hanging out with his buddy Harlan Crow on his private superyacht and jet... Just buddies hanging out. If someone has a problem with that they can take it up with the courts.

[Non Sequitur]

Sounds like Clarence was just hanging out with his buddy Harlan Crow on his private superyacht and jet... Just buddies hanging out. If someone has a problem with that they can take it up with the courts.

That sounds a lot like the Jackson Emery defense.

[Pelado]

https://www.propublica.org/article/c...vel-gifts-crow

This is a problem if true. If this report it is accurate, I believe it is time for Justice Thomas to step down.

That is problematic.

[Moliere]

That is problematic.

Agreed. No one is saying he can’t live it up with his “buddies” but to not disclose it is really bad form.

[Uncle Ted]

Agreed. No one is saying he can’t live it up with his “buddies” but to not disclose it is really bad form.

It is kind of like forgetting that you had a bunch of classified documents stored in your garage. It has been disclosed now so no harm done.

[frank ryan]

https://www.propublica.org/article/c...vel-gifts-crow

This is a problem if true. If this report it is accurate, I believe it is time for Justice Thomas to step down.

We can all take comfort that justice pubic-hair-on-coke has a very poised and dignified wife who definitely doesn't involve herself in dangerous conspiracies and strongly opposed Trump's coup attempt.

[Uncle Ted]

We can all take comfort that justice pubic-hair-on-coke has a very poised and dignified wife who definitely doesn't involve herself in dangerous conspiracies and strongly opposed Trump's coup attempt.

I didn't know that Clarence's wife was a sitting member on the supreme court... so she can say whatever she wants, right? It is kind of like having a son, who is "not the president", that accepts money from an Ukraine energy company and Russian government officials.

How long until the Dems start talking about packing the court again? I give it less than a week.

[frank ryan]

I didn't know that Clarence's wife was a sitting member on the supreme court... so she can say whatever she wants, right? It is kind of like having a son, who is "not the president", that accepts money from an Ukraine energy company and Russian government officials.

How long until the Dems start talking about packing the court again? I give it less than a week.

Ted, you struggle with parallels. Of course his wife can say whatever she wants. It doesn't mean it isn't concerning. Hunter never engaged in seditious behavior. No one is packing the court. You can file that among you're failed predictions.

[Uncle Ted]

Ted, you struggle with parallels. Of course his wife can say whatever she wants. It doesn't mean it isn't concerning. Hunter never engaged in seditious behavior.

If you look at the contents of Hunter's laptops he engaged in all kinds of behavior... including seditious behavior. But the Bidens get a pass for being racist by the Dems. If someone like Eric Trump or Don Jr said that the Dems would be rioting in the streets and burning things down.

No one is packing the court. You can file that among you're failed predictions.

Frank, you need to read my posts carefully. I didn't say the Dems will be packing the court. They will just start talking about it and use it to get the votes from the people with short term memory of gold fish that keep voting for them.

[Northwestcoug]

If you look at the contents of Hunter's laptops he engaged in all kinds of behavior... including seditious behavior.

I don’t know why I still look at them, but here’s another reminder that Ted’s links never say what he claims.

calling someone the N word is seditious behavior. LOL.

And it’s from the Post, so believe it at your peril.

[frank ryan]

If you look at the contents of Hunter's laptops he engaged in all kinds of behavior... including seditious behavior. But the Bidens get a pass for being racist by the Dems. If someone like Eric Trump or Don Jr said that the Dems would be rioting in the streets and burning things down.



Frank, you need to read my posts carefully. I didn't say the Dems will be packing the court. They will just start talking about it and use it to get the votes from the people with short term memory of gold fish that keep voting for them.

Ted, you aren't doing well as an emissary for MAGA Karen Qanon nation. When you say "they" are going to start packing the court in a week the only entity that could do that is the democratic party's

[All-American]

There are three things here: the trips, the non-disclosures, and the impact on the Court's operations.

Frankly, I have a hard time caring about the trips. Yeah, whatever. He went on trips. Big whoop.

The non-disclosure? For all I know, not having looked into it extensively or at all really, there is some justification for why it didn't actually have to be reported and he hasn't violated any rule at all. But for the discussion here, I assume it should have been disclosed. That does bother me. I think most complaints about gifts and trying to buy influence tend to be pretty shallow, but I am all for disclosure obligations; at least give us a chance to decide if we should be bothered by it.

On the last point, though, is there anybody who thinks that these trips had any affect whatsoever on how he decides cases? I've heard the wallet described as a big-time GOP donor, which maybe he is. But is there any reason to think that this somehow affected a single vote?

I had done some review of the subject of judicial ethics, disclosure, and recusal years ago, and in the course of it, came to the conclusion that however much of an argument there ever is that a judge ought to recuse himself/herself from a case, that obligation is much less compelling at the level of SCOTUS. At the lower levels, you get a random judge who, if an issue arises, is replaced with some other random judge, who was just as likely to be your judge as the first one that was recused. So, the cost of replacing a recused judge is pretty slight. That is obviously not true on the SCOTUS level; recusal affects the composition of the deciding body and stacks the cards differently. Given that, my opinion is that Supreme Court justices ought to consider recusal or any other action that concerns composition only in extreme cases. (And lest anyone accuse me of being a complete partisan hack, the first time I voiced that opinion was in the context of Justice Kagan, where I said I thought calls for her to recuse herself from cases that involved former colleagues were unjustified.)

If he isn't following the rules, he needs to start following the rules. Fine. If the hope was he could be ousted while there is a sitting Democratic President and a majority in the Senate, I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Bo Diddley]

Yeah, I'm no more bothered by this than all the other shenanigans that take place in politics. Seems like business as usual. Maybe I'm appealing to relativism, but here we are. And I don't like him as a justice.