Since we now know Alito was flying his flag upside down at the time, let’s review one of the plans the coup plotters had involving him.
This interview by criminal defendant Powell is interesting. It suggests that the purpose of the insurrection was to DELAY the electoral college certification to give #Alito time to intervene on this legal challenge. But, Powell says they didn’t anticipate Pelosi reconvening Congress that day.
Crimal defendant Powell is interesting. It suggests that the purpose of the insurrection was to DELAY the electoral college certification to give #scotus#Alito time to intervene on this legal challenge. But, Powell says they didn’t anticipate Speaker Pelosi reconvening Congress.
Remember when John Eastman admitted his proposals to nullify the 2020 election would lose at #SCOTUS 7-2?
The two Eastman was counting on for the insurrection were Thomas (atop the 11th circuit where they filed a lawsuit in Georgia) and Alito (atop the 5th circuit where they filed a lawsuit in Texas). That’s according to under-oath testimony from Pence’s lawyer. 2/
Toxic partisan politics is corrupting every segment of society, bit by bit, from civilian life to government to church to media to education and everything in-between, eating away at it all, like a cancer.
"Clarence Thomas Complains About ‘Awful’ People After His Ethics Scandals"
"While recent debates center on enacting an ethics code for the Supreme Court, the statutory honoraria ban has been in place for decades. No new ethical rules need to be promulgated, or codes enacted on this subject. It exists right now, as it has since 1989. But Thomas and Leo are doing an end run around it, accomplishing indirectly what the law prohibits them from doing directly. And no one is stopping them."
"…Thomas is saying, No, I may not take a fee for speaking at a dinner sponsored by the Koch bros; heaven forbid I violate the…honorarium ban! But of course: Nothing stops you, Koch bros, from lavishing me w/a trip to Palm Springs in a private plane, sumptuous accommodations, & fabulous meals,…there is nothing wrong w/conservative billionaires enabling Thomas to have a lifestyle far beyond what his judicial salary allows."
"…version of Congress we had 23 yrs ago might have gone ballistic in response to recent discoveries about Thomas. If…concerned about…judges getting money for honoraria…surely would’ve been…evading the honoraria ban w/luxury vacations. If…worried about rich benefactors paying judges for their speeches…would surely be…about rich benefactors providing judges w/private planes & high-end accommodations."
#Thomas (and his #christofascist wife, Ginny) could be indicted tomorrow just on what the public knows about his #corruption & her election interference.
If Trump is de facto immune, well then SO IS BIDEN. Time to start acting accordingly, President For Life Biden. 🤷🏽 This what they want. Give it to them.
The case of Clarence Thomas’s new clerk taints the entire judiciary
Justice #Clarence#Thomas has hired #Crystal#Clanton to be one of his law clerks, the most elite assignment a young law school graduate can secure.
The shock is this:
In 2015, when Clanton was 20
and working for a conservative group allied with the justice’s wife, #Ginni Thomas,
Clanton apparently sent racist texts to a fellow employee:
“I HATE BLACK PEOPLE,”
one text read.
“Like f--- them all … I hate blacks. End of story.”
(In Clanton’s text, the expletive was spelled out.)
It is impossible to overstate the prestige that attaches to a Supreme Court clerkship.
The job is a golden ticket awarded to just 36 each year
— about 1 in 1,000 law graduates, the best of the best.
Major law firms lure Supreme Court clerks with signing bonuses of a half-million dollars.
Clanton, who graduated from the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University in 2022, will be the third high court clerk from that institution since 2021.
The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer unearthed Clanton’s texts in 2017, in an article about 🔹 Turning Point USA🔹, the conservative youth organization run by #Charlie#Kirk.
Notably, 🔸Clanton, the group’s field director🔸, didn’t deny writing the texts.
“I have no recollection of these messages and they do not reflect what I believe or who I am and the same was true when I was a teenager,” she wrote in an email to Mayer.
How Leonard Leo Weaponized the Courts Against Democracy | The Nation
The Federalist Society, formed in 1982, was the perfect vehicle for forging a right-wing legal cadre and funneling it into the legal system.
Leonard Leo joined the Federalist Society in 1986, forming a chapter of the group at Cornell where he was studying law.
As he rose in the ranks, Leo was an important player in the political campaigns to win Senate approval for Supreme Court justices such as Clarence #Thomas, John #Roberts, and Samuel #Alito.
During the Bush administration, when the Department of Justice wanted to “launder and distribute” a white paper in support of a contentious nominee, they turned to Leo.
Viet Dinh, a Department of Justice official who was also a prominent member of the Federalist Society, e-mailed, ”Tell len leo [sic] I need this distributed asap.”
The Federalist Society was thus organically tied to the Republican Party:
When nominees ran into headwinds, Leo would lead the charge with media campaigns to rally support.
By 2016, the role of the Federalist Society as the essential gatekeeper of Republican judicial nominees was recognized by presidential candidate #Trump, who promised the right-wing base, “We’re going to have great judges, conservative, all picked by the Federalist Society.”
The network Leo brought together comprises three cords:
♦️the GOP (which needed conservative judges),
♦️the legal profession (where young lawyers were hungry for a pathway to judges),
♦️and plutocratic donors (eager for judges that supported plutocracy and right-wing politics).
💰Money was a crucial component of this network.
George Conway, a former Republican who had been active in the Federalist Society, told ProPublica,
“There was always a concern that Scalia or Thomas would say, ‘Fuck it,’ and quit the job and go make way more money at Jones Day [a big law firm] or somewhere else.
Part of what Leonard does is he tries to keep them happy so they stay on the job.”
This explains the luxurious lifestyle enjoyed by right-wing judges as they vacation and cavort with robber barons such as Harlan #Crow and Paul #Singer.
The judges get to enjoy the lifestyle of the 1 percent despite earning a government salary.
While the Supreme Court is the big prize, the conservative legal movement that Leo forged worked to reshape lower courts as well as state courts, helping to promote not just right-wing judges but also district attorneys.
Sometimes the lobbying was demagogic. Politico reports,
Leo became interested in Wisconsin in 2008.
An incumbent state Supreme Court justice, Louis #Butler, had angered the state’s largest business group with his ruling in a lead paint case.
The ensuing ad campaign was contentious and expensive, featuring commercials showing Butler, who is Black, next to the picture of a sex offender who was also Black.
The #racist demagoguery of that judicial race is of a piece with the way Republican jurists have so often worked to curtail voting rights.
The whole claim that #originalism was meant to enhance democracy has been revealed as a fraud.
The same #antidemocratic tendency can be seen in the way the court is working to limit president Biden’s agenda, as in the recent decision in
👉Biden v. Nebraska overturning student debt relief—a measure that was in the Democratic Party platform when Biden won the election.
The goal was to create an ideologically committed faction that could dominate the courts and advance its agenda without democratic check.
Congressional Representatives giving speeches bemoaning scotus justices’ pay not keeping up with inflation while also doing nothing to address minimum wage not keeping up with inflation, especially when the justices were and are already paid far more than the average American is paid, is…unsustainable.
'#Corruption, Plain and Simple': Gifts Flowed to #Thomas After Salary Complaints
"What a coincidence," Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. wrote in response to ProPublica's latest revelation. "Corrupt Clarence Thomas should resign from the #SCOTUS"
Thomas complained about his salary to a Republican congressman more than 20 years ago, setting off concerns that the right-wing judge would resign and deprive the conservative movement of one of its most powerful champions.
#Ginni#Gitmo#Thomas is a qanon fascist, she worked really hard to overthrow the government and the election, end America and install a tyrant, rapist, fraud, and coup leader. Ginni is a disgrace to America. Call out her crimes and her fraud everyday.
We see you Ginni. We see what you did. Your BFF Ken #Chesebro and you directed and advised #Coup plotter Mark Meadows.
Dear fascist coup plotter Ginni,
Sedition you say, Ginni?
Many republicans have been convicted of seditious conspiracy and Trump, Meadows and fellow criminals have been arrested and charged with many felonies in 4 jurisdictions. Many election crimes by your friends Ginni, DoJ is probably watching you.