Key findings and takeaways from the Committee’s investigation include:

  • Justice Scalia accepted lavish gifts from billionaires and others with business before the Court for more than a decade, in violation of federal law, including 258 personal trips, dozens of which were never disclosed.
  • Justice Thomas chose to ignore legal obligations to disclose lavish gifts after media scrutiny over his disclosures in 2004, in violation of federal law.
  • Justice Alito misused the “personal hospitality exemption” when he did not disclose gifts of transportation and lodging he received for a luxury fishing trip to Alaska in 2008, in violation of federal law.
  • Justice Thomas failed to disclose gifts on two occasions never before known to the public until the Committee’s investigation, including a July 2021 private jet trip to Saranac, New York, and an October 2021 private jet and yacht trip to New York City sponsored by Harlan Crow.
  • The two well-established “Stop the Steal” symbols at two of the Alitos’ properties while Justice Alito actively participated in cases concerning the 2020 presidential election and January 6 create an appearance of partiality that can only be addressed by recusal.
  • Justice Alito’s unprecedented conduct when sitting for an interview with an attorney with a case pending before the Court raises a concern that he might be influenced to favor the party substantively or procedurally.
  • Justice Thomas has accepted largesse from benefactors in amounts that have no comparison in modern American history.
  • Ginni Thomas’s paid efforts involving the “Stop the Steal” movement and right-wing causes created a clear conflict of interest for Justice Thomas, as federal law prohibits justices from hearing cases where the interests of spouses are involved.
  • To date, the Judicial Conference of the United States has failed to adequately respond to the Supreme Court’s ethical challenges. The Judicial Conference’s September 2024 revisions to gift disclosure requirements are oddly specific in expanding the personal hospitality exemption and seem more likely to absolve past misconduct and facilitate the acceptance of future largesse than strengthen judicial ethics.
  • noneya@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Protest. Force them to step down or face jurisdiction stripping (limiting SCOTUS’s ability to review certain cases).

    • Absaroka@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      The trouble is if they step down now, we’re going to get some unqualified, young friend of Trump on the court for the next few decades.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    SCOTUS response: “what the fuck are you going to do about it? Now if you’ll excuse us, we have a luxury vacation to not pay for.”

    • d00phy@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Pretty much. More and more, I think the US is basically the wealthiest third-world country the world has ever known. Not so much in the average quality of life dept, but more like everything is visibly rotting towards a point where I think we will see a sort of modern dark ages. Probably not in my lifetime.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        I’ve been calling SCOTUS the American Mullahs (as in the people who run Iran) for some time now. Apart from the fact that some of them are women and they aren’t (officially) a religious body, there’s not all that much difference.

    • d00phy@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      AGREED! It’s insane to me that there’s a federally mandated retirement age for civil service employees… unless you run things or have actual power! That’s just stupid.