This court has proven with its actions—through one politically motivated decision after another—that it is unfit to wield the power that it does.”
The Supreme Court Must Be Stopped, Elie Mystal in the Nation. March 1, 2024
I agree with Elie. So what do we do? I’m an activist and I know that there are multiple steps to make something happen. Elie has thoughts about changing how we in the public perceive the court.
Elie said, “The first step toward stopping the Supreme Court’s political actions is to treat the justices as political actors and subject them to all of the scrutiny, pressure, and protest normal political actors face every day. ” I like the way my friend Lisa Graves referred to them on the Nicole Sandler show “Politicians in robes.”
How we treat politicians in American is very different than how we treat Supreme Court Justices. We questions them, we have processes for getting rid of them when they do a bad job. Part of our perception comes from how the media treat them. That needs to change. When our perception of the court changes, so should our response to them.
I LOVE the work that has been done by ProPublica did on the corruption in the court, but the history of Thomas’ corruption has been known for a LONG time. What I’ve seen happen when the information about the corruption in the court is revealed are all the excuses that pop up about why nothing can be done. I’ll ask a question like “Why can’t anyone force Thomas to recuse?” and I’ll get answers about the the separation of powers and how the Supreme Court is set up, so then ask, “What do we have to do to change that, so that there are mandatory ethical rules and consequences for violating them?”
Clarence Thomas should recuse and resign. He should impeached for his corruption. He should hang up his robe and cry.
On the Nicole Sandler Show last week Lisa Graves, who was Chief Counsel for Nominations for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for Sen Leahy, talked about how Thomas should recuse in the Colorado case. She then explained that when Clarence Thomas did NOT recuse on Bush V. Gore case Ginni Thomas got more than a million dollars from the Heritage Foundation after Clarence voted in that 5-4 decision. Ginni was promoted at the Heritage Foundation and advised the Bush White House on appointments.
Read Lisa Grave’s article here Clarence Thomas Has No Shame. But You Knew That.
Not recusing in a case such as this is unprecedented. It’s wrong. And it’s an appalling testament to how corrupted, how political, and how morally bankrupt the Roberts Court really is.
I’m all for FORCING Thomas off the bench. It might take impeachment, an indictment of Ginni Thomas, new stories about Clarence Thomas’s corruption, or Congress passing ethics laws for the Supreme Court. We really can’t let things continue as they have been. I like how Elie put it. “We must demand that our political leaders share with us their plans for stopping the court, in just the same way we demand to hear their plans to fix infrastructure or lower taxes.” And if they give mealy mouth answers, start the drum beat for real solutions.
As Elie said, “all of us need to recognize how dangerous the court is. We are ruled by this court because we are too disunified and distracted to resist it. That has to end, because these nine people will not stop devouring democracy until there is none left to eat.”
