1y ago

‘Corrupt as hell’: Clarence Thomas faces fresh calls to resign after more billionaire gifts revealed

www.independent.co.uk Clarence Thomas faces fresh calls to resign after more billionaire gifts revealed

Congressional Democrats have pushed for ethics reform legislation, efforts publicly rejected by Samuel Alito

News @lemmy.world

www.independent.co.uk /news/world/americas/us-politics/clarence-thomas-corrupt-resign-b2391310.html

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There really does need to be additional checks on Supreme Court Justices, because Congress clearly isn't doing its job. Both the Executive and the Legislative branches are directly answerable to voters, yet the Judicial branch is strangely absent from that ongoing check on their power. I get that we don't want Supreme Court Justices having to campaign for their position, but at the same time, voters should have some direct say in who gets to stay. We clearly had at least two unqualified justices added to the Court under Trump that should not be there.
In the history of the Supreme Court, only one Judge has actually been impeached, but wasn't removed. Another ended up resigning after impeachment was threatened, but that's likely when people actually had a sense of shame and resigned when they were caught doing something wrong. We're at a point now though where one part will simply deny reality and/or any wrong-doing, claim it's just the other side being political, and ignore it.
So calling for him to resign is just sort of a nice-to-say thing I guess, at least it's on record that somebody said it, but it will ultimately go nowhere.
- My desired state is that every governmental position at the senior level is subject to voter recall regardless of whether they are appointed or elected. All of them. I would still expect a high bar to be met to trigger that recall threshold, but the people should ALWAYS be the final say on those in power over them.
- Another ended up resigning after impeachment was threatened, but that’s likely when people actually had a sense of shame and resigned when they were caught doing something wrong.
  Different times. Today, he can hide behind the law and beefed up security. The absolutely worst that could happen to him is that he resigns or is removed in disgrace, but he gets to keep all of the ill-gotten gains he's collected over the years. Try that back then and there's a very real possibility that he'd have been dragged out into the streets and hanged if he refused to resign. Especially considering he's black.
  Today, it's "Can you resign? Pretty please? No? Aw, shucks."
  Back then, it was "Resign or be hanged, asshole."
- Ask yourself this: why is the circuit that covers the largest and most populous area not currently represented? Why is a court that speaks for the entire country disproportionately represented by people from the Tri Cities and DC?
  The SCOTUS doesn't represent America, it represents an East Coast elite America that turns its head away from the harsh realities of working class Americans in Midwestern and Western America.
  
  if it's the East Coast Elite running the supreme court, then how come they're doing regressive dumb shit like overturning Roe vs Wade and putting a stop to student loan forgiveness? How did either of these things help with the "harsh realities of working class Americans in Midwestern and Western America" ?
  
  The Supreme Court is completely decoupled from the American population. What do you expect to happen? It's a place where career justices can go to play ideology while normal people are suffering.
  The East Coast elite is very rich and (by extension) conservative. They are never going to vote for things that actually help the American populace.
  
  The East Coast elite is very rich and (by extension) conservative. They are never going to vote for things that actually help the American populace.
  I would hardly call most New England states, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware as "conservative" by any stretch of the imagination. It doesn't get conservative until you get south of DC.
  
  NYC does have actual conservatives, they even have their own island and have to take a ferry to get to work....
  
  Every state has conservative pockets. McCarthy is from California, one of the bluest states in the country. But NYC as a whole is overwhelmingly blue.
  
  Not you're conflating two issues. All large states tend to have rural areas which are mostly conservative, and California is no exception. I looked McCarthy 's district up and it's in the southern part of the Central Valley, it looks like it includes some of Fresno's suburbs but not Fresno itself (which is repped by a Democrat). NY State is no different: go north of the Tappan Zee and you have large swaths of Republican country with a few dots of cities that are Democratic thrown in.
  But NYC definitely has Conservatives. They may not be as conservative as the South, but they exist. Recall that NYC elected Giuliani as Mayor, before he went off the rails. NYC also elected Mike Bloomberg, but in fairness he would be a Democrat anywhere else.
  
  Joe who supports the Patriots and works on a lobster boat half the year isn't going to the Supreme Court. Bill who's a theatre student at NYU isn't going to the Supreme Court. The people that are going to the Supreme Court are predominantly white men from highly privileged backgrounds.
  Coincidentally, this forms the three metrics that correlate with conservative lean. Wealthier people lean conservative, white people lean conservative, and men lean conservative. In fact, even in the notoriously liberal New York Metro, white people are mixed https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/compare/party-affiliation/by/racial-and-ethnic-composition/among/metro-area/new-york-city-metro-area/.

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