Tag: neil gorsuch
Gorsuch

Gorsuch Concealed Property Sale To Lawyer With 'At Least 22' High Court Cases

A property in Colorado partly owned by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch was on the market for nearly two years with no bites. Then Gorsuch was confirmed to the court and within nine days the property sold, Politico reports. Gorsuch reported the proceeds of the sale in his federal disclosure forms, but somehow missed the box where he was supposed to report to whom he sold the property. That raises once again the thorny problem of Supreme Court ethics, or lack thereof.

Gorsuch did report the money he made from the sale on federal disclosure forms. What he didn’t disclose was the buyer: Brian Duffy, chief executive of Greenberg Traurig,. that just happens to be a powerhouse law firm that has regular business before the Supreme Court.

Politico found that Greenberg Traurig had been before the court in 22 cases since Gorsuch was seated, either presenting cases or filing amicus briefs. In the dozen cases where Gorsuch’s opinion was recorded, he sided with them eight times and against them in four. That included one very political and significant case overturning Obama-era rules limiting carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act, a ruling that limits the government’s role in fighting climate change.

At least Gorsuch bothered to report the sale of the Colorado property, which is more than his colleague Clarence Thomas deigned to do when his very good and remarkably generous friend Harlan Crow helped him out on some real estate deals. That included buying Thomas’ mother’s house, completing an extensive renovation of it, and then allowing her to live there rent-free.

But Gorsuch’s failure to disclose that Duffy was the buyer is potentially a violation of federal disclosure laws, as Kedric Payne, director of ethics at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, reads them. Payne told Politico that “investments in LLCs require more details than the justice includes in his financial disclosures.“

“This transaction appears to also require naming the buyer. The public has a right to know that justices will fully comply with disclosure rules instead of providing only a tiny peek into their financial disclosures,” he said. He did stress that there aren’t enough facts available now to determine whether it was a simple omission or a violation.

Gorsuch did not comment on the story. Duffy told Politico that he has never met Gorsuch, or personally argued before the court. “I’ve never spoken to him,” Duffy said. “I’ve never met him.”

But plenty of Greenberg’s colleagues sure have—he’s not just CEO, but the head of the whole team of 600 lawyers. It could be a coincidence that the property Gorsuch and his co-owners had been trying to unload for two years sold immediately after his confirmation. It could be coincidental that the buyer was someone with a vested interest in the Supreme Court.

In fact, there’s no rule saying Supreme Court justices absolutely can’t have financial dealings with people who have had or might someday have an interest in court decisions. However, they are supposed to check their own behavior and recuse themselves from cases involving people with whom they have had such relationships.

They are also required by federal disclosure laws to report those dealing in their financial disclosures. Gorsuch didn’t do that, either by simple omission or on purpose. We don’t know which, and that’s part of the problem, too, because there are so few mechanisms to ensure transparency from the Supreme Court. There is a code of ethics for the federal judiciary, but the Supreme Court justices are exempted from it. They are left to police themselves.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin issued a typically concerned statement to Politico. “We have seen a steady stream of revelations regarding Supreme Court Justices falling short of the ethical standards expected of other federal judges and of public servants,” said Durbin. “The need for Supreme Court ethics reform is clear, and if the Court does not take adequate action, Congress must. The Senate Judiciary Committee will be closely examining these matters in the coming weeks,” said Durbin.

The Supreme Court has had plenty of opportunity to take that action, for years and years and years, and it has not. It is absolutely time for Congress to act, and that starts with Durbin and his committee.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Sadly, The Supreme Court Is Even More Corrupt Than You Know

Sadly, The Supreme Court Is Even More Corrupt Than You Know

Question: How many legs does a dog have if you count the tail as a leg? Answer: Four — calling the tail a leg doesn't make it one.

Likewise, calling a small group of partisan lawyers a "supreme" court doesn't make it one. There's nothing supreme about the six-pack of far-right-wing political activists who are presently soiling our people's ideals of justice by proclaiming their own antidemocratic biases to be the law of the land. On issues of economic fairness, women's rights, racial justice, corporate supremacy, environmental protection, theocratic rule and other fundamentals, these unelected, black-robed extremists are imposing an illegitimate elitist agenda on America that the people do not want and ultimately will not tolerate.

Indeed, the imperiousness of the six ruling judges has already caused the court's public approval rating to plummet, to a mere 38 percent, an historic low that ranks down there with former President Donald Trump, and threatens to go as low as Congress.

This has led to a flurry of officials attesting to the honesty and political impartiality of the reigning supremes. Unfortunately for the court, these ardent defenders were the six culprits themselves.

The "integrity of the judiciary is in my bones," pontificated Neil Gorsuch, who now stands accused of having lied to senators to win his lifetime appointment.

"[We are not] a bunch of partisan hacks," wailed Amy Coney Barrett, a partisan extremist jammed onto the court in a partisan ploy by Trump in the last few hours of his presidency.

"Judges are not politicians," protested John Roberts, who became chief justice because he was a rabid political lawyer who pushed the Supreme Court in 2000 to reject the rights of voters and install George W. Bush as president.

As many of its own members privately admit, Congress has become a pay-to-play lawmaking casino — closed to commoners but offering full-service access to corporate powers.

But the Supreme Court is another government entity that's even more aloof from workaday people — and it has become a handmaiden to the corporate elites trying to increase their dominance over us. The six-member right-wing majority on this secretive powerhouse now routinely vetoes efforts by workers, environmentalists, students, local officials, voters, and all others who try to rein in corporate greed and abuses.

Appointed for lifetime terms, the members of this autocratic tribune take pride in being sealed off from democracy, even bragging that they make rulings without being influenced by special interests. But wait — in makeup and ideology, today's court majority is a special interest, for it consists of corporate and right-wing lawyers who've obtained their wealth and position by loyally serving corporate power. And far from now being isolated from moneyed elites, the judges regularly socialize with them and attend their closed-door political meetings.

There's even a special little club, called the Supreme Court Historical Society, that frequently reveals the cozy, symbiotic relationship that exists between today's judicial and corporate cliques. Such giants as Chevron, Goldman Sachs, AT&T, and Home Depot pay millions of dollars to this clubby society, gaining notice by and the appreciation of the Supremes. And, yes, these special interest gifts to the court are gratefully accepted, even when the corporations have active cases before the court, seeking favorable rulings from the very judges they're glad-handing at society soirees.

Of course, the judges insist there's no conflict of interest, because this access to them is "open to all." Sure — all who can pay $25,000 and up to get inside! Yet the clueless judges wonder why their credibility is in the ditch. Remember, in America, The People are supreme! We don't have to accept rule by an illegitimate court.

For reform, go to FixTheCourt.com.

To find out more about Jim Hightower and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

The 'Deep Roots' Of Justice Alito's Illegitimate Opinion

The 'Deep Roots' Of Justice Alito's Illegitimate Opinion

Not so long ago, the Supreme Court possessed sufficient stature that nobody — least of all its own justices — felt obliged to reassure the public of its legitimacy. Neither Chief Justice John Roberts nor his colleagues had to promise that the court reaches its decisions based on law, not partisanship or ideology. Today they regularly utter such cheerful bromides — and the more they talk, the less anyone believes them.

The highest court's credibility has trended downward for the past two decades, ever since a Republican majority handed the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush, with consequences that most Americans agree were disastrous. That steep slide will seem gentle if and when, as now appears inevitable, the conservative majority's draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade becomes law.

Stunningly ill-advised and contrary to constitutional order, that decision will starkly highlight the crisis of the court — and demonstrate once more how Republicans have gnawed like termites at the lawful foundation of democracy.

The decision's illegitimate foundations lie in the very construction of the court majority that will make it possible. Justice Samuel Alito, who auditioned for his appointment as a relentless foe of abortion, is only on the court thanks to the partisan outcome of Bush v. Gore — which awarded the presidency to a man who had decidedly lost the popular vote and probably lost the Electoral College as well. The three Trump justices — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — likewise gained their appointments via an election that saw the popular-vote loser elevated to power.

Far worse, the conservative majority exists only because Senate Republicans denied an appointment to Barack Obama on spurious grounds that they abandoned at the end of Trump's presidency. By that measure, neither Gorsuch nor Barrett belongs in their seats. When Mitch McConnell whipped those swindles through the Senate, he irrevocably stained the justices who benefited from them. (The McConnell rule is simple: When a Supreme Court vacancy arises, it's always too late for a Democratic president to appoint, but never too late for a Republican.)

Next came the deception perpetrated by the Trump justices during their confirmations, when asked about how they would handle this vital issue. At least two of them clearly stated in public hearings — and privately told senators who supported them — that Roe was settled law, validated many times over the past five decades. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins both now profess astonishment that these men misled them during the confirmation process.

The same lie was reiterated in conservative media. In July 2018, The Wall Street Journal, that repository of reactionary falsehood, published an editorial mocking the "abortion scare campaign" that accompanied the appointment of Republican justices. According to the Journal editorial board, nobody needed ever to fear for Roe: "The reason is the power of stare decisis, or precedent, and how conservatives view the role of the Court in supporting the credibility of the law." (Be warned: That editorial board now breezily insists that vacating Roe won't endanger same-sex marriage, contraception or any of the other "unenumerated" privacy rights whose demise Alito strongly hinted in his opinion.)

Yet there is another stigma of illegitimacy on this act that overshadows all the rest: the almost mindless misogyny that is, to use a favorite Alito phrase, so "deeply rooted" in the court's ongoing repeal of abortion rights. The draft opinion exposed Alito's profound sexist contempt in a way that would be comical if not for the fact that it has cost so many women's lives and will continue to destroy them.

To justify his assertion that abortion is an affront to Western legal traditions, Alito went deep indeed. He cited the views of a 17th-century British jurist named Edward Coke, who declared abortion to be a heinous crime. As Lawrence O'Donnell noted on MSNBC, that same Coke believed some women (and a few men) were witches and should be torturously put to death for assisting the devil. As an additional legal authority, Alito also cited several times Sir Matthew Hale, another 17th-century British judge who oversaw the execution of alleged witches — and came up with the stunning theory that a man by definition could not rape his wife, regardless of her consent.

It seems possible that one of Alito's clerks pranked him with these choices, but he circulated the draft that included the embarrassing citations, so it's on him. Evidently such barbaric jurisprudence is what the likes of Alito mean when they blather on about "original intent."

More than two-thirds of Americans believe that Roe should be preserved to protect the health and security of women and their families. When it is cast aside, the political consequences for those responsible should be severe — because the damage done to one of our most important institutions will be so grave.

To find out more about Joe Conason and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

neil gorsuch with donald trump

Justice Gorsuch Parrots False Claims On Flu Deaths — And Internet Erupts

Conservative justices on the Supreme Court are making it clear they oppose President Joe Biden’s "vaccinate or test" workplace mandate. Arguments against the OSHA-enforced directive from attorneys arguing the case on the right are being derided on social media, but now the justices themselves are making embarrassing excuses to kill the life-saving federal order.

Take Justice Neil Gorsuch, a 54-year old father of two with a Harvard Law degree and a PhD from Oxford.

He has zero medical training. (It also appears he’s an anti-masker, see below.)

The Trump-appointed jurist on Thursday handed down medical “information” to support the clear desire of the far-right court to end the mandate.

During oral arguments, made by two right-wing attorneys remotely because both have COVID, Gorsuch compared the deadly coronavirus which has killed over 850,000 Americans, to the seasonal flu.

Justice Gorsuch told the Court the flu kills “hundreds, thousands of people every year.”

According to the CDC, the flu kills 12,000 to 52,000 annually. COVID-19 to date has killed over 850,000 in the U.S., including 385,00 in 2020.

It’s clear Gorsuch does not understand how highly transmissible the coronavirus is, nor how deadly it is – not to even begin to mention long COVID, or that millions of Americans are ineligible for age or health reasons to get vaccinated against COVID.

Social media users erupted in anger and frustration.

The Economist’s Supreme Court reporter Steven Mazie reveals Justice Gorsuch actually laughed when the U.S. Solicitor General called the coronavirus pandemic “terrible.”

Gorsuch laughs when Prelogar says this is a terrible pandemic -- what about polio or the flu, he says??
— Steven Mazie (@stevenmazie) January 7, 2022

Unsurprisingly, as Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern points out, Gorsuch was the only justice at the Court unmasked.

Anyone surprised that Gorsuch is the lone justice who refused to wear a mask today? https://t.co/v1IdstWcZ6
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) January 7, 2022


So Justice Gorsuch just compared COVID-19 to the seasonal flu. He must be watching Breitbart and getting his news from other right-wing crackpots.
— A Worried Citizen (@ThePubliusUSA) January 7, 2022

Reprinted with permission from Alternet