SCOTUS Issues
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“A full-blown Color Revolution-style attack on the US Supreme Court as an institution is now in its early stages”
“Color Revolution” is a term that has been around for a while and doesn’t have a single clear definition. But the term most famously was used as to the “Orange” Ukraine 2004 civil unrest that allegedly was manipulated by western intelligence agencies to topple a pro-Russia regime. A color revolution then, is a form of manipulated mass civil disobediance meant to accomplish regime change.
We saw it used against Trump after the 2016 election, where manipulated and hysterical claims of Russia collusion were used to attempt to paralyze the Trump administration under the umbrella of “The Resistance” – and it worked well in stymying many of Trump’s planned initiatives. It all was highly organized and manipulated. What has been happening in Israel regarding judicial reform also is a form of color revolution, where organized mass protests against the recently-elected right wing coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu paralyzed the country, and even the military, all with the purpose of overthrowing the democratically elected goverment.
There also is a type of color revolution being waged against the Supreme Court now that it has a conservative majority. Michael Waller tweeted:
“A full-blown Color Revolution-style attack on the US Supreme Court as an institution is now in its early stages.”
An Amazing Coincidence! Three Conservative Supreme Court Justices Under Investigation for Ethics
I am not a conspiracy monger. Readers of my work know that I take a dim view of trying to explain what happens in the world as some sort of organized or even generalized plot to discredit/destroy the right or its personalities.
The world is far too messy to be so organized about anything. But the human brain is a wonderful mechanism for ordering the world. We are born to see patterns around us; cloud formations as animals or other illusions that are beautiful but irrelevant. But just because it seems organized doesn’t mean it is.
Essentially, you can’t take outcomes as evidence of conspiracy. But isn’t it interesting that within a matter of a few days, three conservative Supreme Court judges have been reported to have ethics problems?
One helluva coincidence.
Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has a rich friend who likes to treat him and his lovely wife to expensive trips to luxury resorts. Would that the rest of us were so lucky. But Thomas violated the unwritten rule that justices need to act as Caesar’s wife: above suspicion.
Saw a headline today that all 9 Justices collaborated on a letter berating the Democrats for spurious ethics accusations.
Not so much berating as saying "stay in your lane". The letter - https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Letter to Chairman Durbin 04.25.2023.pdf
Thanks, article I saw had a bit different timber to the verbiage.
Liberal SCOTUS Justice Caught in Scandal That Blows Up Recent Left-Wing Attacks
For the last few weeks, a coordinated assault on the court’s conservatives has taken place, with numerous press outlets releasing reports supposedly detailing corruption. In reality, essentially everything charged amounted to nothing legally or ethically. In the case of Thomas, he was not required to report the free travel he received from long-time friend Harlan Crow. A secondary charge that Thomas misreported income also turned out to be nothing more than a simple technical mistake involving two entities with nearly identical names.
As for Neil Gorsuch, he was accused of selling land to the executive of a law firm that had business before the Supreme Court. Once again reality got in the way of the far-left hysteria, though, after it was revealed that Gorsuch sold the property just nine days after being confirmed and that the person he sold it to had no business at all before the court at the time.
You get the idea. These attacks have been absolutely ridiculous, but that didn’t stop Senate Democrats from calling a hearing to furiously wag their fingers. Well, they are going to have to call another hearing because it’s been revealed that Sotomayor took $3.6 million from a book company that did have business before the court at the time (The Daily Wire).
Cruz, Hawley Cut Dems Down to Size on SCOTUS Security Funding Threats in Must-Watch Moments
For instance, as we previously reported, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) brought the fire, particularly against Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and his prior on-the-record threats against conservative Supreme Court Justices:
Cruz also gave Democrats a piece of his mind, as we previously touched on. But in a longer clip below, Cruz shined the spotlight on the fact that Democrats are apparently willing to “threaten to lives” of Supreme Court Justices who refuse to give in to the partisan antics of the committee members who are deliberately trying to “delegitimize” the court.
“This is disgraceful,” Cruz went on to say, while noting that “every Senator who signed” on to the letter threatening funding should be “embarrassed” as the media should, he added, over participating in what he said was a modern-day version of Clarence Thomas’ 1991 “high-tech lynching” at the hands of then-Sen. Judiciary Chairman Joe Biden and the rest of the Democrats on the committee at the time.
GOP Donor Paid for Clarence Thomas’ Grandnephew’s Private School: Report
Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas, Ethics, Campaign Finance, Billionaires, Politics, Private SchoolsAllSides Summary
Billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow paid private school tuition for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ grandnephew, according to a new report from ProPublica (Lean Left bias).The Details: According to ProPublica, Thomas did not report the tuition payments in annual disclosures. Thomas reportedly sent his grandnephew to a private boarding school in 2008, but the tuition — over $6,000 per month — was paid by Crow. Thomas reportedly took legal custody of the grandnephew when he was six, and was “raising him as a son.”
For Context: Thomas has been a focal point for critics of Supreme Court ethics standards since last year's reports on his wife’s connections to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. ProPublica also previously reported that Crow had paid for several trips taken, but not disclosed, by the Supreme Court justice. The reaction among politicians has been fairly partisan, with Republicans defending Thomas and Democrats calling for investigations.
How the Media Covered It: Coverage from the right tended to highlight a friend of Thomas who said it was “despicable” that the media had “dragged” the grandnephew “into their effort to smear Justice Thomas.” Some coverage from the right also highlighted potential ethics violations by liberal justices. Coverage from the left was less sympathetic to Thomas; Insider (Lean Left bias) highlighted that the school Thomas’ grandnephew attended had been accused of using child labor.
Left-Wing Attacks on the Supreme Court Do It Credit
Justice Clarence Thomas sold a one-story family home and two vacant lots to a personal friend for $133,000. That's it. That's the story that set off the latest round of coordinated attacks on an entire branch of America's national government.
A holding company in which Justice Neil Gorsuch owned a 20 percent stake sold a house to a Democratic Party donor for far less than asking price. The Democrat said that when he offered to buy it, he had no idea Gorsuch owned a stake in it. That's it. That's the follow-on story over which the attacks continue.
The wife of Chief Justice John Roberts made about as much as a legal recruiter as she likely did when she was a law-firm partner. That's it. That's the new bombshell Leftists in Congress and the media think will explode the Supreme Court.
Over the last several weeks, regime apparatchiks have sought to highlight these lame reports, carefully spaced across news cycles to create the appearance of a burgeoning scandal where there is none. To commend these anticlimaxes to the public's limited attention, the attackers have had to resort to reality-TV sizzle. But the real stories are piddling. The Chief Justice's wife had worked at the nation's largest legal-recruiting firm for many years. A bungalow and a pair of dirt lots got sold nearly a decade ago. Nobody cares.
Longtime Thomas Friend Hits Back At Democratic Probe Into Financial Records
“The Committee showed no interest in evaluating federal gift tax laws until the April 24 Letter, which came just two weeks after media reports regarding Mr. Crow’s friendship with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and has given no indication of any federal gift tax issues it seeks to investigate beyond those referenced in the Letter,” Bopp wrote in a letter obtained by CNN. “Given the Letter’s timing and focus, this inquiry appears to be a component of a broader campaign against Justice Thomas and, now, Mr. Crow, rather than an investigation that furthers a valid legislative purpose.”
Crow and Thomas have been friends for more than 20 years. In that time, Thomas and Crow have vacationed together in places such as Indonesia and Greece, and Thomas has on occasion used Crow’s private plane for travel. Crow also bought Thomas’ childhood home with the intention of one day turning it into a memorial or museum for the second black Supreme Court justice in U.S. history. Thomas took a loss on the sale.
Thomas did not report the gifts on his financial disclosures to the Supreme Court because they were not required under the court’s ethics rules.
In response to Bopp’s letter, Wyden accused Crow of “stonewalling.”
“The bottom line is that nobody can expect to get away with waving off Finance Committee oversight, no matter how wealthy or well-connected they may be,” Wyden said in a statement, according to Politico. “I will send a full response to Mr. Crow’s attorney in the coming days.
“The assertion that the Finance Committee lacks a legislative basis for an investigation of the abuse of gift taxes by the wealthy is simply preposterous,” the senator said. “I have used my Chairmanship of the committee to shine a bright light on tax schemes undertaken by the ultra-wealthy, including untaxed transfers of wealth.”
Fourteen Senate Republicans wrote a letter to Wyden on Monday as well, condemning the Democrat’s investigation into Thomas, Crow, and their relationship. The senators accused the Democrat of trying to intimidate the Supreme Court.
Hijinx
Well-Known Member
Martha's Vineyard? How about Hawaii? How about Georgetown Washington D.C. and he still has the one in Chicago.
And we are probably paying for SS security at all of them. A Community Organizer, and faux Senator and President and he has raked in millions$$.
He wrote a book. A couple of them , so did Grisham and Sandford , and other writers who don't have 3 Mansions.
He got rich while President. While Trump lost money as president, and he wrote a book too.
Joe Biden IMO could not have sold his position as VP without Obama having knowledge and a part in it.
China has made Biden and Obama rich, while they have made China rich with our money.
Where is the dirt coming from for the lithium batteries. where is our manufacturing going who makes the solar panels.
Who is building coal powered power plants while we are shutting them down?
Has the Biden and Obama environmental plan hurt us and helped China?
Where did the Covid come from.
It certainly has the appearance of collusion by Biden and Obama with China.
The Left’s Three-Part Strategy Targeting The Supreme Court
My appearance on the Jesse Kelly Show: DOJ refusal to enforce statute prohibiting protests at Justices homes means “it’s essentially mob rule, whoever controls the streets is going to control everything.”
SCOTUS reins in state property tax practices
The justices ruled 9-0 in favor of Minnesota woman Geraldine Tyler, 94, who had owed roughly $15,000 in property taxes, Reuters reported. In 2016, Hennepin County foreclosed on her home and sold it for $40,000 but kept the excess. Minnesota state law requires that any remaining proceeds from such a sale go to local administrations. Lawyers for Tyler indicated that 13 other states have comparable statutes.
Tyler moved out of her condominium and into an apartment building for the elderly in 2010, at which point she ceased paying taxes on the condo. The county insisted that she had refused alternative options to secure the funds necessary to pay the taxes, such as selling the property or refinancing.
The justices, nonetheless, determined that the excess $25,000 did not rightfully belong to the county.
"The taxpayer must render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, but no more," wrote Chief Justice John Roberts. The court determined that such a practice violated the 5th Amendment, which requires "just compensation" should "private property be taken for public use."
SCOTUS to unions, 8-1: You break it, you bought it
Alternate headline: Pottery Barn rules apply to walkouts. In an 8-1 decision in which only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson fully dissented, the Supreme Court ruled today that unions have to reimburse employers for damages caused by striking workers. The National Labor Relations Act does not confer immunity to unions or workers — the latest ruling from a court that has stiffened the boundaries for labor activities in the last few years:
At issue was a job action by Teamsters at a large cement production and delivery company, which went on strike over their expired bargaining agreement. The union called for a strike in the middle of the day, even though the company had prepared a large amount of concrete for delivery that day, and that refusing to deliver it would not just ruin the product but also damage the vehicles. Sure enough, 16 drivers walked off the job. Glacier Northwest managed to get the concrete out of the trucks before they got seriously damaged, but their production that day was a total loss.
Glacier Northwest wants the Teamsters to reimburse them for the loss. The Teamsters argued that the NLRA immunizes them from such claims in state court and in federal court as well. Nope, writes Amy Coney Barrett for the 8-justice majority.
I really liked Jackson saying that spoiled cheese was the same as hardening concrete. What a twit!