Congressional Democrats have pushed for ethics reform legislation, efforts publicly rejected by Samuel Alito

  • paddirn@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    There really does need to be additional checks on Supreme Court Justices, because Congress clearly isn’t doing its job. Both the Executive and the Legislative branches are directly answerable to voters, yet the Judicial branch is strangely absent from that ongoing check on their power. I get that we don’t want Supreme Court Justices having to campaign for their position, but at the same time, voters should have some direct say in who gets to stay. We clearly had at least two unqualified justices added to the Court under Trump that should not be there.

    In the history of the Supreme Court, only one Judge has actually been impeached, but wasn’t removed. Another ended up resigning after impeachment was threatened, but that’s likely when people actually had a sense of shame and resigned when they were caught doing something wrong. We’re at a point now though where one part will simply deny reality and/or any wrong-doing, claim it’s just the other side being political, and ignore it.

    So calling for him to resign is just sort of a nice-to-say thing I guess, at least it’s on record that somebody said it, but it will ultimately go nowhere.

    • CompostMaterial@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      My desired state is that every governmental position at the senior level is subject to voter recall regardless of whether they are appointed or elected. All of them. I would still expect a high bar to be met to trigger that recall threshold, but the people should ALWAYS be the final say on those in power over them.

    • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Another ended up resigning after impeachment was threatened, but that’s likely when people actually had a sense of shame and resigned when they were caught doing something wrong.

      Different times. Today, he can hide behind the law and beefed up security. The absolutely worst that could happen to him is that he resigns or is removed in disgrace, but he gets to keep all of the ill-gotten gains he’s collected over the years. Try that back then and there’s a very real possibility that he’d have been dragged out into the streets and hanged if he refused to resign. Especially considering he’s black.

      Today, it’s “Can you resign? Pretty please? No? Aw, shucks.”

      Back then, it was “Resign or be hanged, asshole.”

    • zephyreks@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Ask yourself this: why is the circuit that covers the largest and most populous area not currently represented? Why is a court that speaks for the entire country disproportionately represented by people from the Tri Cities and DC?

      The SCOTUS doesn’t represent America, it represents an East Coast elite America that turns its head away from the harsh realities of working class Americans in Midwestern and Western America.

      • havocpants@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        if it’s the East Coast Elite running the supreme court, then how come they’re doing regressive dumb shit like overturning Roe vs Wade and putting a stop to student loan forgiveness? How did either of these things help with the “harsh realities of working class Americans in Midwestern and Western America” ?

        • zephyreks@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          The Supreme Court is completely decoupled from the American population. What do you expect to happen? It’s a place where career justices can go to play ideology while normal people are suffering.

          The East Coast elite is very rich and (by extension) conservative. They are never going to vote for things that actually help the American populace.

          • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            The East Coast elite is very rich and (by extension) conservative. They are never going to vote for things that actually help the American populace.

            I would hardly call most New England states, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware as “conservative” by any stretch of the imagination. It doesn’t get conservative until you get south of DC.