Over the last several years, the U.S. Supreme Court has suffered multiple scandals and issued a slew of widely unpopular rulings that have contributed to a loss of public confidence in the nation’s highest court. ProPublica conducted a series of investigations detailing how extremist right-wing Justice Clarence Thomas has received millions of dollars’ worth of gifts from wealthy benefactors, including all-expense-paid-luxury vacations, paid school tuition and the purchase of his mother’s house, all of which he failed to disclose in violation of federal law.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have called for an investigation of Justice Samuel Alito following revelations that he has flown insurrectionist flags outside two of his homes, and the disclosure of recent covert recordings of his comments agreeing that the U.S. is locked in a culture war between liberals and conservatives and that there are some differences on fundamental issues that can’t be compromised.
Amid the Supreme Court’s rejection of an ethics code with a mechanism for accountability, the court’s 6-member extremist super majority have overturned decades of precedents protecting women’s reproductive rights, opened the door to racial and LGBTQ+ discrimination, embraced discriminatory voter suppression laws, favored corporate interests over the public interest, and issued decisions prioritizing the rights of Christian nationalists over the rest of the nation. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with John Bonifaz, a constitutional attorney and the co-Founder and president of Free Speech For People. Here he talks about his group’s recently launched Supreme Court Reform Now campaign, demanding accountability to restore the high court’s integrity.
JOHN BONIFACE: It’s really quite incredible the level of corruption that exists among certain justices you have — Justice Clarence Thomas, who has received gifts, huge sums of of gifts, vacation gifts and an RV and so forth, much of which he never disclosed from a billionaire right-wing billionaire named Harlan Crowe. And that person happens to have a lot of business before the U.S. Supreme Court.
So he has been already influenced by Harlan Crowe and failed to disclose all these gifts. You know, as Congressman Jamie Raskin and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently highlighted in a hearing they held, there’s a $50 gift ban for members of Congress. They can’t take more than $50 from an individual without it being disclosed. And even after that, it’s actual banned anything above that.
And yet here you have effectively hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars flowing in terms of gifts to Justice Clarence Thomas. And only because of reporting by ProPublica, did it get exposed. And, of course, Clarence Thomas tries to argue that there was nothing wrong with any of these gifts and that he’s not going to recuse himself from any of the cases that his billionaire investor, Harlan Crowe, has in the Supreme Court.
Then you have similar kinds of gifts that Justice Alito has received, even Justice Gorsuch has received.
And separate from that, of course, is a scandal of both Justice Thomas and Justice Alito showing clear bias with respect to matters dealing with the Jan. 6 insurrection. Justice Thomas’s wife, was directly involved in the Stop the Steal movement trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
And Justice Alito, as we now know, has had insurrectionist flags flying outside his properties. Both in Alexandria, Virginia, as well as his beach home in New Jersey. And in both instances, you know, he has claimed somehow that it was his wife that flew these flags and he couldn’t get them down. And he tried to get them down.
But the point here is that he has an apparent bias, at least from the looks of it, clear appearance of bias. And he won’t recuse himself from the cases that are pending before the court dealing with the Jan. 6 insurrection, including the case of whether or not Donald Trump has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election, which Jack Smith is currently leading as special counsel to the Department of Justice.
And neither will Justice Thomas recuse himself, despite his wife’s direct involvement in the effort to overturn the 2020 election.
SCOTT HARRIS: John, please review for our audience the elements of your group’s Supreme Court Reform Now campaign, as well as how this issue of the Supreme Court should be handled in the critical 2024 election campaign where Joe Biden just said during a campaign fundraiser recently that surely the next president — and if it’s Trump — he will be able to select two more Supreme Court justices in the mold of the most extremist on the court that he’s already put on there. Three of them.
JOHN BONIFACE: I think voters care about a lot of issues, and they ought to care about the Supreme Court. You know, the four prongs that we have of SCOTUS Reform Now are Number One, investigate the corruption. We’re demanding the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoena the right-wing billionaire Harlan Crow and enforce the existing subpoena against Leonard Leo of The Federalist Society. A full investigation of the corruption of the
Supreme Court is necessary. And that now includes an investigation of these insurrectionist flags flying outside Justice Alito’s homes.
Number Two, we need to hold the justices accountable. And we are urging impeachment proceedings: The House Judiciary Committee to initiate impeachment proceedings against Justice Thomas for alleged abuses of power. Justice Kavanaugh regarding the sexual misconduct allegations, perjury and conspiracy to obstruct congressional proceedings. And now, Justice Alito for his misconduct and his refusal to recuse from these critical cases.
And then, Number Three, expand the court to restore balance and to ensure the rights of the American people, Congress should pass Registry Act, which adds four seats to the Supreme Court.
There’s nothing in the Constitution that says there need to be nine justices. It used to be that we had six. And there’s a clear argument based on the expansion of the judiciary that four new seats should be added.
And then finally, Number Four, enforce ethical standards. Congress must pass the Supreme Court Ethics Recusal and Transparency Act and the Judicial Ethics Enforcement Act of 2024. These bills would establish a code of conduct for justices, improve disclosure, create an Office of Inspector General, and ban substantial gifts to justices.
All this is necessary to restore the court’s balance and legitimacy.
For more information, visit Free Speech For People at freespeechforpeople.
Listen to Scott Harris’ in-depth interview with John Bonifaz (16:56) and see more articles and opinion pieces in the Related Links section of this page.
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