Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/10/audio-catches-supreme-court-justice-alito-declaring-religious-crusade-to-reshape-america.html
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I don’t know… but Rep. Raskin had this article in the NYT recently about getting both Alito and Thomas to recuse themselves from Jan. 6th cases…
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Isn’t impeachment an option for SCJs?
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Not with this Congress.
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Nor future ones, if this is any indication.
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The conservative methodology is primarily about ensuring that Wilhoit’s out-groups know their place. It’s been thus for centuries in this country. When open bigotry became embarrassing, they cobbled together a caste system based on incumbent wealth (financial and social), race/ethnicity, sexual preference, and gender. They’ve allied themselves with theocrats and they’re now doing the same with fascists and white supremacists.
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Religion is my least favorite type of ligion.
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And also, for an “Originalist”, he’s a historical turnip by flying the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which was inspired by a strict believer in the seperation of church and state.
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Hail Hydra …
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And now, the same activist has released a recording she made of Alito’s wife at the same event. Basically, both recordings demonstrate that they are both just really horrible people.
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Can they really decide for themselves whether they can be impartial?
That question likely goes back to well before they took up law, I reckon. But if there had ever been any confusion on their part, it was certainly cleared up during the vetting process when their partisan natures were solidly verified.
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More and more, I really think we’d have been better off with Harriet Miers.
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Legally or in reality? Legally, yes. There is no outside mechanism to force Supreme Court Justices to follow the ethics rules they are technically bound by. It’s a loophole in the ethics rules that bind all federal judges. For lower courts, a major part of the enforcement of those rules are higher courts. So if a district court judge, say, owns a significant amount of stock in a company that is a party to a lawsuit in his court, and he doesn’t recuse himself, and that company wins in court, the losing party has grounds for an appeal on the basis that the judge should have recused himself. And the appeals court would almost certainly reverse the verdict and remand for a new trial with a new judge, and possibly sanction the original judge. With SCOTUS, there’s no way to do that because there is no higher court to appeal to.
Now, Raskin’s idea is interesting, but it’s never been done before and I doubt Biden’s Justice Department will do it with an election coming up. It’s just too risky. And I do not share Raskin’s optimism that if it were brought before the other Justices, they would have no choice but to force Alito’s and Thomas’s recusals. All of the current Justices, including the three liberal ones, have been pretty adamant that they can police themselves. I don’t know why since we have such strong evidence to the contrary (Abe Fortas resigned under threat of impeachment for far less egregious financial misdeeds than the millions Thomas has accepted from donors like Harlan Crow), but that’s where we are. I personally think it’s past time to impeach Thomas. I don’t know if there is sufficient evidence to impeach Alito. A proven inability to be impartial likely isn’t going to be considered a “high crime or misdemeanor” by anyone. But there is more than enough evidence to impeach Thomas, and if the other Justices know that Congress is actually willing to do that, the threat of it will help keep them in line. Right now, they think they’re untouchable. And they’re right.
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Dunno. This sure doesn’t make for a bombshell revelation.
Most of the audio is the activist running their mouth. Alito (of whom I’m no fan) mainly is either noncommittal, polite, or passively shining then on.
Yeah he probably believes in moving us to a Christian theocracy, but the breathless descriptions of the recordings here and on RS simply aren’t borne out by the full audio take.
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Only one justice, Samuel Chase, has ever been impeached. It was in 1805. The House passed the articles, and the Senate acquitted him. That doesn’t give me a lot of hope. IANAL, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they can pretty much do anything, up to and including treason*, and still not be legally forced to resign.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/faq_general.aspx
*I’m not saying what Alito has done or said amounts to treason, but it seems like it might be a future goal.
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IMO probable evidence of this should be enough to remove him from office.
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It’s amazing/horrifying to think that, because no one thought to codify ethics for the Supreme Court in an enforceable way AND because they get lifetime appointments, we basically have an untouchable royal family with actual power to really mess up our country and most of our lives. It’s the same with being able to be elected president when you’re a convicted felon and/or in jail. It’s like all of these gentleperson agreements and assumptions that people would more or less behave and/or experience shame were REALLY bad assumptions.
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Assuming you’re correct; all that means is that Alito is too stupid to be on the court.
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Honestly I think we’ve known it before. We’re just remembering again to see if we do anything about it this time or “forget” again for a while.
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He has the power to do so, and is working on it actively!
You DO realize what that would be like, right? Living in a Christian theocracy, for all of us who aren’t onboard wit that?
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