Senator Graham is already making the connection between today’s hearing and intimidation of the justices.
He reminds that Sen. Schumer promised the justices would “reap the whirlwind,” and here we are.
/1
Flashback:
“I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.” - Senator Chuck Schumer
“The danger isn’t that rogue justices are operating without ethics. It’s that Democrats aren’t winning every fight, and they find that reality intolerable.” - @SenJohnKennedy
“Until [Democrats] get the outcome they want in every case, I fear they’re going to continue to slander [the Supreme Court] in an effort to take control of it.” - @SenJohnKennedy
Judge Mukasey makes good points that putting a Court employee or other committee or individual in charge of the justices’ recusals is a recipe for both constitutional violations and political interference.
Kedric Payne's testimony says there is no internal committee to address ethics questions so there isn’t consistency or knowledge of who they’ve consulted.
But they do have one. They consult a committee of 9 Supreme Court justices. And as the highest court in the land they can’t… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Tom Dupree predicts a first-round in every litigation about which justices even get to sit on the case. I think that’s right.
For all the people who are annoyed about the potential for forum-shopping that single-judge districts allow, or about the second-level fights that arise… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Amanda Frost says that without an independent ethics board, the Supreme Court is accountable to no one.
She’s wrong.
The Constitution creates a check on the Supreme Court: impeachment.
But it doesn’t allow a check beyond actual impeachable conduct.
Senator Graham pointed how Justice Ginsburg's 1998 donation of her signed VMI decision that went on to be auctioned off at fundraiser for the National Organization for Women's Legal Defense Fund received no outage.
“Are you aware that [Demand Justice] spent over $1 million in ads pressuring Justice Breyer to resign?” - Senator @LindseyGrahamSC
“The goal of the Left’s efforts is to cast doubts on certain judges and justices all because the Left is opposed to recent Court rulings. That’s what this hearing is all about — undermining the American people’s trust in the judicial branch of government.”- Senator @ChuckGrassley
Justice Clarence Thomas predicted this "high-tech lynching" over 30 years ago:
"And from my standpoint as a black American, as far as I'm concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Hey @kedric_payne, here's your retweet since you can't recall...
Senator @ChrisCoons says, “if you undermine that legitimacy…”
But who’s doing the undermining? Why do people think there’s corruption? Because people with a vested interest in taking down the justices they disagree with have been making up false, one-sided, and misleading… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Yes, “judges should be angry about the crisis in legitimacy.”
They should be angry because Democrats are falsely impugning them, with real consequences for the public confidence in the Court.
“This is a political campaign designed to smear Justice Thomas. And the reason is simple — the Left despises Clarence Thomas. They do not despite him because he’s a conservative. The Left despises Clarence Thomas because he’s a conservative, African-American.” - Senator @tedcruz
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. @GovRonDeSantis just signed a law permitting the death penalty for individuals convicted of raping children under the of age 12 — which would likely be challenged before the Supreme Court.
I was clerking for Justice Thomas at the Court when the underlying case (Kennedy vs. Louisiana) was decided in 2008.
Patrick Kennedy was found guilty of brutally raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter. She actually needed surgery to repair the physical damage he inflicted.
It appears that Senator Whitehouse—rather than help ensure the confirmation of another judicial nominee—had a *very important person* to greet in Rhode Island today.
It is shocking that President Biden would refer to the Supreme Court as "destabilizing" on a world stage because he disagreed with an opinion it issued. /1
Biden's comments—which themselves are the sort thing that *actually* undermine the rule of law—were taken straight from the playbook of the liberal dark money groups who spent over $1 billion to help elect him. /2
Those same groups are engaged in a systematic effort to undermine and intimidate the Supreme Court. Biden's comments bless their efforts, and affirm the lie that the Court is illegitimate simply because it refuses to deliver the Left's policy preferences. /3
Today's ruling n West Virginia v. EPA is a big victory for the rule of law, for sound textualism, and for the structural Constitution.
The case has implications for not just the separation of powers in the federal government, but for federalism too. /1
The Court appropriately rejected the EPA's sweeping claim of regulatory authority under the Clean Air Act—essentially to do whatever it wanted to reduce or eliminate carbon from any part of the American economy through emission reduction mandates. /2
In so holding, the majority refused to engage in an extravagant reading of the operative statute and formally recognized the "major questions doctrine," giving needed guidance to lower courts. /3
Yet another victory for religious liberty at the Supreme Court in Carson v. Makin today. /1
In concluding that a state violates the Free Exercise Clause by prohibiting students participating in an otherwise generally available student-aid program from choosing to use their aid for religious schools, the Court continues its defense of religious liberty. /2
Today's holding is a clear extension of Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue (2020), which reached a similar conclusion in a case involving a tax credit for contributions to a scholarship program. /3
The leak represents an unprecedented effort to undermine the Court and its integrity.
It's absolutely critical that the responsible party is found and disciplined to the fullest extent possible. /2
If the leaker was a law clerk, he or she should be fired immediately. But it shouldn't stop there. As @JonathanTurley writes, if this individual lies in the course of a government investigation, he or she could face criminal liability. /3