Justice Alito says Congress lacks the power to impose an ethics code on the Supreme Court
Justice Alito says Congress lacks the power to impose an ethics code on the Supreme Court
Justice Samuel Alito says Congress lacks the power to impose a code of ethics on the Supreme Court. He becomes the first member of the court to take a public stand against proposals in Congress to toughen ethics rules for the justices.
Think about this for a second: a Supreme Court justice thinks NO ONE has the power to hold them to an ethical standard. I can think of no better reason to hold them to an ethical standard than that.
Yeah really, if a justice literally says checks and balances don't exist, maybe we should listen and respond accordingly. Also maybe we should fire him, and most of the others.
Exactly. Checks and balances motherfucker! We need to swing the scales back into balance so hard. He and Thomas are launched into orbit and never heard from again. Run over by an orbiting Tesla.
Congress already has a check against SCOTUS, impeachment. Alito is actually probably right here. It would take a constitutional amendment to create a new lever for congress to pull.
Which is complete ass because it will never happen. That document is a failure in the 21st century and is holding us back.
This is genuinely quite a scary belief coming from a SCOTUS justice. In effect he is saying that the SCOTUS is the only institution in the US that is completely untouchable by legislation. That elevates the SCOTUS to a level beyond any other government position. Effectively our benevolent overlords. Given how low of approval ratings that the SCOTUS has, their recent series of ideological activist decisions, and the fact that they aren't even elected positions, I find myself increasingly in support of a fundamental redefinition of the SCOTUS as we know it. I don't see why we shouldn't stack the SCOTUS when they've fundamentally abandoned their duty to any level of fairness or responsibility for the citizens of the US.
Unelected, serve for life, say they are untouchable and can do as they please. How is that not a king?
Because Supreme Court cant create their own laws directly, missing legislature power, having no direct power to control national finances/budgets, a main power of a country and they dont have control of the executives including army and police. All their power depends on laws made by legislature and constitution.
Thats how the three pillars of power works in all democracies. Just because your legislature or executives or even forefathers who made the constitution fucked up, doesnt mean the supreme court is an absolute monarchy. The biggest piece of shit mistake you made was having a two party system. In other countries, supreme courts arent as binary partisan. Coalitions of Partys vote way more reasonable judges to supreme courts
The "unelected" part is on purpose, though I'd prefer sortition.
The biggest group of voters may decide who controls the government, but they shouldn't decide who takes places in the supreme court. At least not in the same mechanism.
Well, unless you can make it a 95% "in favor" vote, of course. Then, I guess, there'd be no hope anyway.
They think they're the equivalent of the mullahs of Iran apparently.
It's funny you say that because that's exactly where my mind went too. A system with elections, but a class of officials that exist outside of that system and that can overrule it and can't be touched by it.
It's also an incredibly dangerous thing for a justice to say because it just begs for a constitutional test. The court is probably best known for the ability to decide whether a law is constitutional, or judicial review, which is not spelled out in the constitution. So let's say congress passes a law concerning ethics on the court and the court says "that's not constitutional" and congress just goes "neither is judicial review." Pure chaos. The courts power mostly is like that episode of The Office where Pam says she's the office manager and everyone just goes along with it. The court says it has judicial review authority, and everyone just went "ok."
I like the idea of terms being twenty years and judges being selected randomly from existing sitting judges in lower courts. Takes all the air out of the balloon around Congress fighting over approving SCOTUS judges.
I kind of like that idea, except I think it's less likely to create a non-partisan court and more likely to create a randomly partisan court. Like, odds are that five of the justices would still have a partisan lean. Is that fair to the American people? Also, when Republicans block a president from having their judicial nominations confirmed, then it becomes even more likely for conservative justices to make it to the SCOTUS. Same for if Dems blocked. It would incentize obstruction.
I've felt that we should simply have the SCOTUS be elected like we do in many states. Why shouldn't the people have a direct say in who makes the greatest decisions about our constitution? It was one thing when the court was ostensibly non-partisan, but at this point if it's going to be partisan either way, we should just make it elected.
Alternatively, we could bake the partisanship into the court. Make the court have an even number, then reward an equal number of justices to the major parties (parties receiving more than x% of the vote in presidential elections or something like that). If libertarians or greens ever get more popular, we can have the court autoadjust to split between more parties. That's my hairbrained idea that would probably be too messy to be worth it.
Alito is wrong. Just like he’s wrong about a lot of other things.
State judiciary: powerless versus their congress.
Federal judiciary: unquestionable.
Get the fuck out of our government, you miserable bastard.
Sure sure, and by that logic, I also submit that the Supreme Court lacks the power to impose their own ethics on an entire gender.
Expand and term-limit SCOTUS. This system is ridiculous
Instead of term limits, the rule should be to replace the longest serving justice every 4 years. On average, every president will therefore replace one justice each term barring any accidents.
I mean term limits aren't going to fix the problem. They arguably may make them far worse. It then just becomes a job of tactically making sure you secure the election of the executive branch and senate. With senate being the most important since if senate sits on their hands you sort of get a "Scalia situation". Where there will just be an empty seat until you get executive and senate to agree on a candidate.
Term limits would require a Constitutional Amendment.
Laughable with a republican congress.
If Congress lacks the authority to regulate the Supreme Court, then certainly they also lack the authority to fund the Supreme Court...
Justice Samuel Alito says Congress lacks the power to impose a code of ethics on the Supreme Court, making him the first member of the court to take a public stand against proposals in Congress to toughen ethics rules for justices in response to increased scrutiny of their activities beyond the bench.
Then who exactly is supposed to be the check on the courts? Is that not precisely the domain of the legislative wing of govt? That's like some basic civics shit.
It's bullshit, but he's probably not wrong. The Legislature's checks on the Judiciary are primarily:
- Funding
- Congress has the authority to create all courts below SCOTUS and provide for those courts' jurisdiction
Fortunately, congress does have the power to impeach and remove a supreme court judge.
It would be, if we elected people who cared more about doing good than they do about increasing their own fortunes.
In theory. In practice getting 2/3 of the Senate to agree on anything is pretty much impossible.
Can we start a prayer drive for this guy to die in his sleep?
Nah, that's too peaceful and hippie. Let's pray for Old Testament God and their unimaginable non-eucludean angels who have thousands of eyes and burning wheels and infinite wings with a baby fetus in the core with the absolute most fucked up horrific natural death possible.
Ill just ask Odin to release the wild hunt on this fuckface. Not quite eldritch but still fucking horrific.
There's a key trick to evaluating statements by the republican justices... re-read anything they say from the lens of they are completely full of shit and have zero integrity.
These are not serious people. Don't discuss them as if they are. Tell your own representatives that they need to act on this LOUDLY or they will lose your vote.
Well, as I see it, Mr. Alito... You can either have Congress do it, or you can have an angry mob do it. Which do you prefer?
I'll believe it when I see it, Americans are quite pacified.
I'm not. :)
I live near Alito. There was certainly concern that Americans aren't as pacified as you think--if the riot police and swat that staged near his house, after the Roe decision, was anything to go by.
This is just... wow. The breathtaking arrogance of it.
It's not often these swine can actually get a visceral reaction from me anymore, but wow. Time to get back to work on that Novelty Giant Cigar Chopper I'm working on.
And remember, Alito and Thomas were nominated by the so-called "moderate" Bush family.
I feel the supreme court is playing a game of fuck around and find out here. Hate to say it but supreme court ethics has pretty bipartisan support. These people are entrusted to be above that kind of behavior, but it's already been shown that every member of the court has something to hide. If they're not willing to self police themselves we will police them ourselves.
I mean, you should probably walk that back a bit.
The liberal justices surely aren't vocal enough about the need for ethics oversight (likely because they've been threatened by other justices in the majority and told that if they stay aligned with the fascist judges on some of this that the judges will vote on the side of the actual merit of the cases for some of the "lesser" cases that come through the court".
There is no room for these blanket false equivalencies though.
Giving in to threats or agreeing to some kind of quid pro quo system would also be corruption. If some justices are threatening others, that should absolutely be exposed and supreme court justices are in one of the best positions to do that exposing.
Sorry but I think the whole of the supreme court is rotten to the core as it stands, and I think some ethics are in dire need. If you think the liberal justices aren't getting kickback, sweetheart deals, or vacations from wealthy billionaires, you're kidding yourself. They're going to push back on ethics because it might expose the true scale of the corruption in the supreme court. So you can give them a pass if you want, but the whole point of lifetime appointment was to rise above politics and currying favor, and as I see it in my life time the supreme Court has done little to improve people's lives, but corporations have benefited to a great deal. I don't think for a moment I think Congress is any better they're rotten too, but they at least have to report their gifts. Like I said the bear f****** minimum.
supreme court ethics has pretty bipartisan support
Except, it absolutely does not.
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
— Article I Section 8 Clause 18 US Constitution
The Constitution indicates that Congress gets to set the laws that are necessary for proper execution of all the powers enumerated in the Constitution.
IF THIS ISN'T GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS
Alito basically admitted to conspiracy against the government
The dude is out of control.
... yet still in control of SCOTUS.
This old man refuses to let go of his SCROTUS
IF this was true, it is just proof that the system is broken. Who watches the watchmen?
They have the power. They just don't have the will.
Mighty fucking convenient. It’s this kind of stuff that tells me we are governed by children. “Nuh uh. Can’t do that. I’m on base. Na-na-na-boo-boo.”
Whom among you has the power to censor the censor!?
Edit: Also, where does this asshole get off? Congress doesn’t have the power? Let’s logic this out. Does congress have the power to pass laws? Do citizens have to obey laws? Are you a citizen? I can big brain this all day.
They can certainly add and remove them.
This guy is a used douche.
The corruption gets more blatant by the day. Regulate this bs now!
He may be wrong in a structural sense, but he is making a valid point in a how things really work sense. The phrase "legislate from the bench" was coined for a reason. The concept of judgement notwithstanding the verdict grants some of that power to lower courts. It shouldn't be like that, but it is.
Pretty sure historically presidents just make the federal branches enforce the laws if the supreme court says no
He may be wrong in a structural sense, but he is making a valid point in a how things really work sense. The phrase "legislate from the bench" was coined for a reason. The concept of judgement notwithstanding the verdict grants some of that power to lower courts. It shouldn't be like that, but it is.
He's an asshole, but he's right. SCOTUS is supposed to be the last stop for constitutional rights. They can even block presidential directives if they are what they (Scotus) perceive as unconstitutional. However we've recently learned that there's a couple of members with sugar daddies and saying something like this isn't only piss poor timing, it's basically saying that Alito believes himself to be untouchable and infallible with authority over congress. Now keep in mind that we as American citizens make the ultimate vote (by the majority) to fill congressional seats to cater to the majority's needs, Alito is saying that SCOTUS is untouchable and infallible to the people
No, he's not right.
Although the Constitution establishes the Supreme Court, it permits Congress to decide how to organize it. Congress first exercised this power in the Judiciary Act of 1789. This Act created a Supreme Court with six justices. It also established the lower federal court system.
Congress gets to set the rules of how the Supreme Court is organized. They are a built-in constitutional check on SCOTUS.
No, he's not right. The supreme court is big above all reproach. Multiple other people have proved that Congress has the power to make laws on how other parts of government function. On top of that, we are supposed to be a country of checks and balances. Why would we have a court that's all powerful, its members are appointed, and its members have lifelong appointments? That's basically zero oversight whatsoever. Congress can absolutely tell the supreme court how to function. Alito is just hoping that no one calls him on his bullshit.
Indeed. Justices are expected to serve "in good behavior" indicating they can be impeached which is a power granted to congress. Size of the court isn't spelled out in the constitution and the court has been different sizes as well. Maybe Alito would like to be part of a 51 person court. The power of the purse lies with congress. Alito might enjoy hearing cases inside of the local Denny's if they can beat the brunch crowd.
And then there is the whole judicial review thing - this is the vast majority of the court's power these days, and it has no constitutional basis. It's allowed only because everyone went along with it. What if the court declared something unconstitutional and everyone just went "ok boomer" and didn't give a shit?