GOP senators want Roberts to take action on Supreme Court

[In It to Win It]

GOP senators want Roberts to take action on Supreme Court

Republican senators are leaning on Chief Justice John Roberts to do something about the Supreme Court’s appearance problem in the wake of reports that conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito accepted luxury vacations from conservative donors.

While Republicans don’t support Supreme Court ethics reform legislation sponsored by Democrats, they think the reports that Thomas and Alito accepted expensive vacations funded by wealthy donors has created a real public relations problem for the court.

These lawmakers want Roberts to take the issue of legislation out of Congress’s hands by issuing a judicial code of ethics or some other updated statement of principles for he and his fellow justices.

“I think it would be helpful for the court to up its game. I don’t want Congress to start micromanaging the court but I think confidence-building would be had if they were more clear on some of this stuff,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

[intrepidity]

1. Always surprised when conservatives try to do the right thing

Even when, as usual, it is for corrupt reasons.

[MurrayDelph]

19. You can always count on Republicans to do the right thing

Eventually


When they've tried everything else


And not doing it affects them

[Volaris]

26. AND, it's the easiest approach.

[progressoid]

22. Or *look* like they are doing the right thing.

[groundloop]

25. EXACTLY THIS !!!!!!! They don't give a shit about the "right thing", only the optics.

They'd be perfectly happy with all the right wing justices taking all manner of bribes, so long as it never showed up in the news cycle.

[madinmaryland]

36. They're actually doing the "right thing". Well it should be called the "far Right wing thing".

🤬🤬

[uponit7771]

34. +1, which means the ussc Isn't polling well and gqp want to look like they're on majority America l

[Walleye]

2. Sure, Lindsay, setting ethics rules for the Supreme Court is "micromanaging" for crying out loud

So they have decided it’s an appearance problem and they need some PR, I Supreme Court Justice taking huge bribes. That’s a crime not an appearance problem

[Irish_Dem]

12. Yep. They aren't doing anything wrong, they just need better PR.

Problem solved.

[Midnight Writer]

3. Roberts will not do anything.

[LenaBaby61]

8. THIS 👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻

[Rebl2]

23. Nope

[diane in sf]

4. Robert's wife did $8M in business with a group that later came before the court. Don't hold your

breath waiting for any of the Republicans on the court to do anything about enforcing ethics rules.

[LenaBaby61]

9. REALLY THIS 👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻

[Tesha]

5. This is going to be another issue that drives voters to Dems.

If the Senate refuses to do something, through law or through telling Roberts to "some how do something"

The talking point is simple - access to the highest court is money, and here's the proof.

[Diamond_Dog]

6. If it were liberal judges accepting these lavish gifts

You can bet they’d be on this like white on rice.

[LenaBaby61]

10. REALLY, REALLY THIS 👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻

[MurrayDelph]

21. Yeah, but so would we

When democrats are caught doing wrong/illegal, we get rid of them

When republicans are caught doing wrong/illegal, they say "What about the Democrats?"

[uponit7771]

35. THIS !!!! ☝🏾☝🏾☝🏾

[C_U_L8R]

7. Go to the source of all this criminality

The Heritage Society and its corrupt membership and financiers. No judge should ever be seated with their sponsorship. Ever.

[Irish_Dem]

11. It's just an "appearance" problem?

It just looks like they are doing illegal/unethical things?

[GenXer47]

13. they want him to lipstick the pig

This all gets down to lifespan in 1776 which was 38 or so.
"Lifetime appointment" was about 4 to 5 years by the time you ascended to the top bench. You could be totally corrupt and still not do too much lasting damage.
So when Clarence Thomas talks about the "history and traditions" of the United States, he's a zombie, long-dead.

[bringthePaine]

14. yet another pathetic round of refuKKKchicken failures looking for meaningless cover🖕

[infullview]

15. They're not "doing the right thing"

They just want the court to appear legitimate as they continue to corrupt it for their own political purpose.

[Joinfortmill]

16. Robert's is impotent

[BoomaofBandM]

17. Appearance problem. Not worried about the corruption, but about how it looks.

[Raven123]

18. Oh horse manure. They don't want Roberts ro do anything. They SAY they wanted reform

….. so they can pretend they care in hopes of not losing voters who actually care

[relayerbob]

20. They're just worried ...

That it will incent the Dems to make major changes to the court to prevent the next RW grifter from being out in

[bucolic_frolic]

24. Can Justices be indicted?

One of these times they might have broken a law instead of just "bad optics".

[NoMoreRepugs]

27. Little lindsey and the word ethics should never be in the same sentence.

[Amaryllis]

28. Nothing to do with ethics, just appearance of impropriety.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

29. Justice Samuel Alito, his wife Martha-Ann, and Leonard Leo in Versailles, France.

Link to tweet

[Stinky The Clown]

31. Was cake on the menu?

[dalton99a]

32. .

[dalton99a]

30. Basically do something about the "For Sale" sign - it is way too big

and blocking the view of the whorehouse

[LetMyPeopleVote]

33. The SCOTUS needs to adopt an enforceable code of ethics

Link to tweet

[NYC Liberal]

37. And what happens if someone violates this voluntary ethics code that Graham wants?

Roberts has no power to enforce such a thing. No power to punish. Unless a law is passed, it would be completely meaningless.

[gratuitous]

39. Republican Senators have that covered

Sen. Collins of Maine promises that she will be very, very concerned. She might even furrow her brow.

[NYC Liberal]

40. And then she'll say they learned their lesson.

[roamer65]

38. Thomas and Alito need to resign immediately.

Their lapses of ethical behavior have been much worse than Abe Fortas and he resigned.