From the New York Times, it would seem as though we’ve perhaps gotten to the root of the problem. Not only was the investigation itself a failure – in that it did not pin down the source of the leak, but it failed on another level. Some of the suspects were above the ultimate test, the one that could make lying a crime:
The Supreme Court’s internal investigation into who leaked a draft of the opinion last year overturning the landmark decision that had established a constitutional right to abortion included talking to all nine justices, the marshal of the court said on Friday.
But the justices — unlike dozens of law clerks and permanent employees of the court — were not made to sign sworn affidavits attesting that they had not been involved in the leak of the draft opinion overruling Roe v. Wade and that they knew nothing about it.
Well, that makes sense, given that no justice has ever leaked an opinion before… Oh, wait. From Yahoo News, earlier this year, we did learn that this happened before (though Alito denies it) with the Hobby Lobby case, another case that impacted strong, wealthy, conservative organizations. Strange that the Dobbs was written by Justice Alito and so was Hobby Lobby:
Conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito allegedly told private dinner companions how the high court would rule in the landmark 2014 case of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, according to a bombshell report in The New York Times.
The dinner companions, who were wealthy donors to an evangelical Christian nonprofit, reportedly tipped off the minister who led the nonprofit, Rev. Rob Schenck, who told the Times he later informed the CEO of Hobby Lobby.
Schenck also used the information “undetectably” to assist “in preparing for the inevitable announcement” of the court’s decision, which he wrote in a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts earlier this year which was obtained and published by the Times.
Weird, huh? Why would it be a problem asking the justices to sign off on a document saying I had nothing to do with the leak under a penalty of perjury? Shouldn’t the justices be the easiest to ask? They are above reproach, correct? Why would they be above signing anything… unless some sort of deal was made?
Oh, and they did not talk to agent provocateur Ginni Thomas who has shown that her judgment leads her to text the White House Chief of Staff during a disastrous period.
So not only was the Supreme Court investigation incompetent, the report was deliberately inaccurate by hiding Justices’ participation. Why didn’t they question political extremist agitator Ginni Thomas? https://t.co/BziF6Nf7Oq
— Lawrence O'Donnell (@Lawrence) January 20, 2023
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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, SUBSTACK: UNREGULATED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS THE GREATEST THREAT TO HUMANITY
Equal Justice Under Law. What a crock, perpetrated by crooks, traitors, rapists & religious cult members. Have they no integrity? No shame? No conscience? Nope. Not a bit. Our Supreme Dump of a court that’s suppose to stand for justice. Evil. Pure fucking evil.
OK. My mind balks with Legalese (and Financial-ese, Computer-ese, etc.), but if someone can translate Legalese into plain English (which I DO understand quite well), please outline how to impeach a Justice. How does one start the ball rolling?
Impeachment of a Justice is handled exactly the same way as for a President or a Cabinet member. Members of the House have to issue article(s) of impeachment and then the Senate has a “trial.” I’m not certain as to who presides in the trial phase though presumably the President of the Senate (when a President is impeached, the Chief Justice presides over the trial–presumably as the “President of the Senate” aka “the Vice-President” could be seen as having a conflict of interest). As with any other impeachment trial, it takes a 2/3 majority to remove the Justice from office.
The ONLY Supreme Court Justice who actually faced impeachment was Samuel Chase in 1804-05. He was acquitted and most scholars looking at the case view the entire proceedings as nothing more than a case of partisan politics run amok (what’s most unusual is that Chase’s impeachment was due to his handling of a couple of circuit court cases, which was a practice in the era for SCOTUS justices, rather than any specific “crime” he committed in a case before the Supreme Court or even something like bribery or, like John Pickering, being intoxicated on the bench).
Right now, with the GOPers “in charge,” there’s almost no chance that either Alito or Thomas (the most likely leakers on the Court) will face articles of impeachment coming from the House. Even if they did, there’s practically no chance that the Senate would remove either man from office (and given our friendly neighborhood axis of Manchin/Sinema, even a guilty verdict isn’t guaranteed).
I still dont understand why Liz Cheney, let (little BIG) Mrs. Ginney off of the hook in theJan. 6 ‘guilty’ list…
Just as the Court is letting this ‘leaker’ off the hook!
Those Thomas’s….. what a powerful, most likely guilty, couple!!!!!
I looked up the duties of the Supreme Court Marshall. Note that the is not part of nor answerable to the DOJ. Investigations are not part of her duties. Per Wikipedia;
a) The Supreme Court may appoint a marshal, who shall be subject to removal by the Court, and may fix his compensation.
(b) The marshal may, with the approval of the Chief Justice of the United States, appoint and fix the compensation of necessary assistants and other employees to attend the Court, and necessary custodial employees.
(c) The marshal shall:
(1) Attend the Court at its sessions;
(2) Serve and execute all process and orders issued by the Court or a member thereof;
(3) Take charge of all property of the United States used by the Court or its members;
(4) Disburse funds appropriated for work upon the Supreme Court building and grounds under the jurisdiction of the Architect of the Capitol upon certified vouchers submitted by the Architect;
(5) Disburse funds appropriated for the purchase of books, pamphlets, periodicals and other publications, and for their repair, binding, and rebinding, upon vouchers certified by the librarian of the Court;
(6) Pay the salaries of the Chief Justice, associate justices, and all officers and employees of the Court and disburse other funds appropriated for disbursement, under the direction of the Chief Justice;
(7) Pay the expenses of printing briefs and travel expenses of attorneys in behalf of persons whose motions to appear in forma pauperis in the Supreme Court have been approved and when counsel have been appointed by the Supreme Court, upon vouchers certified by the clerk of the Court;
(8) Oversee the Supreme Court Police.
If the justices were exempt then no true investigation was done. Even the lower I.Q. individuals in this country were pointing their fingers at the justices, the conservative ones and especially alito and/or thomas, as being the leakers. If the “investigators” are not admitting this was at least a possibility and therefore acting on it by investigating them, an investigation wasn’t done but a coverup sure as shit was.
This is bullshit and one more egregious abuse of power as well as a complete lack of ethics on the part of the justices-fuck let’s just say it, on the part of alito and thomas- and screams for action against these people. They have abused the power they wield. Congress and the Executive branch must rein these bastards in–quickly.
I want EVERY justice who lied under oath during his/her confirmation hearings IMPEACHED. 1) Alito. 2) Gorsuch. 3) Kavanaugh 4) what’s her name. I don’t know if Roberts or Thomas we’re asked about Roe. But I want Thomas impeached for not recusing himself from a case in which his wife was implicated. I want Roberts impeached b/c of his lack of ethics of not sharing all of the letters complaining about Kavanaughs lack of ethics (which, if Roberts HAD come forward, they almost certainly would have sunk Kavanaugh just like a real FBI investigation would have) until AFTER Kavanaugh was confirmed.
If they ALSO lied under oath during their confirmations…,EVERY single GOP justice is dirty, corrupt…