The U.S. Supreme Court Is Asking For Trouble
Is it too much to expect the nation's high court to adopt a binding, enforceable code of ethics? Should the federal judiciary be the only branch of government where anything goes?
Over the years, Justice Clarence Thomas accepted gifts valued at $4.2 million, including at least 38 “destination vacations” from billionaire “pals” with interests that come before the U.S. Supreme Court.
It’s no wonder that President Joe Biden on Monday called for lawmakers to pass a new and binding code of ethics for the U.S. Supreme Court and 18-year term limits for its nine justices.
It is obvious that billionaires would not have given Justice Thomas a thin dime had he not been a member of the Supreme Court. Ergo, their gifts, many of which Thomas failed to report, inherently represent influence peddling. Few would disagree that it was unethical for Thomas, who is paid $285,000 a year, to accept these expensive gifts.
Lack of accountability is a generally problem in the U.S. Court system, which seems oblivious to judges who clearly are not impartial and engage in political activities.
Not a single one of the 1,363 complaints lodged against federal judges in FY 2023 appears to have resulted in any disciplinary action.
What are the odds that there was no actionable misconduct by almost 2,000 judges in the federal court system in 2023? Were all the complaints unfounded? Of course not.
The federal judiciary has devised a self-serving system whereby virtually all complaints by litigants are dismissed without investigation because they pertain to the merits of a case.
Where misconduct exists, U.S. Court of Appeals judges simply overlook the misconduct.
Or a Chief Judge in a regional circuit arbitrarily lets the judge off the hook because she can.
When complaints are clearly meritorious, the dirty judge is permitted to retire with a fat pension.
If complaints never result in real accountability, people lose respect for the institution, and it incurs serious damage to its reputation. That’s where the federal court system is today.
Gallup’s annual survey on public confidence in the Supreme Court in 2022 reported the Court’s rating hit a historic low. Only 25% of Americans reported “quite a lot” or “a great deal” of confidence in the court, down from 36% in 2021.
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