 Just a couple of weeks ago pro-publica released a report detailing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's close relationship with right-wing billionaire Harlan Crowe along with decades of unreported gifts worth hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in total and This week we learned that Neil Gorsuch failed to disclose that a law firm who frequently argues cases before the Supreme Court Purchased property that he co-owned in just nine days after he was confirmed to the Supreme Court Now considering the fact that this property sat there for two years without a buyer and then all of a sudden Conspicuously when he's confirmed to the Supreme Court This law firm who argues cases before the court decided to purchase it. I Think that most reasonable people would assume that the law firm wanted to cultivate goodwill with the new Supreme Court Justice by helping him net Hundreds of thousands of dollars for his personal wealth now while Gorsuch reported the sale He never actually disclosed the identity of the buyer. Hmm. I wonder why he wouldn't disclose this fact That's pretty relevant if you ask anyone with a brain Yeah, so to say that the highest court has a few ethical issues would be the understatement of the century So Dick Durbin share of the Senate Judiciary Committee extended an invitation to Chief Justice John Roberts to testify about the Supreme Court's ethics and Roberts responded by Telling him no he turned down the invitation Especially given this time when the public has questions and concerns about the Supreme Court rightfully so Roberts said no so in a letter to Chairman Durbin He writes I must respectfully decline your invitation testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee by the Chief Justice of the United States is Exceedingly rare as one might expect in light of separation of powers concerns and the importance of preserving judicial independence He then went on to justify his decision with a bunch of vapid bullshit and attached a statement of ethics principles Signed by every single member of the court and I've just got to ask What the fuck is he thinking? This is what a lot of people are asking Declining the invite is bad in and of itself But simply stating their ethics principles is almost insulting considering how senators have Explicitly asked them to adopt a binding code of conduct. So to just say we're not going to do that But we're just going to state our principles. Oh, and I'm also not going to testify I mean it's just completely unreasonable and he's getting slammed because of this NBC News reports a new statement signed by all nine Supreme Court justices stressing their commitment to ethics principles has come under immediate fire for failing to respond to recent calls for The court to adopt a binding code of conduct Several experts faulted the court for doubling down on its decision Not to adopt a formal code of conduct when public trust in the institution has plummeted after high-profile ethical concerns As well as public backlash to some of its rulings on hot button issues like abortion and guns The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Now get this District and appeals court judges are bound by a judicial code of ethics that requires judges to avoid Impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities Judges who breach the code can be investigated and reprimanded through a separate complaint process The supreme court however the highest court on the land has no procedure for complaints to be investigated short Of the substantial step of impeachment the nine justices say they follow the spirit of the code But they have never adopted one of their own. I love that last line so much see We don't actually need to be bound by a code of ethics because we follow the spirit of the code wink wink I mean it's It's so absurd. We have uh an alleged rapist on the court. We have alito leaking cases to republican donors We have thomas who has a nazi admiring billionaire sugar daddy. We have gorsuch getting um buttered up I guess by law firms who are constantly arguing cases before the court I mean, it's so deeply unserious and orwellian that I don't know how anyone can take this court seriously at this point And this is why their legitimacy is in crisis currently and I think that aoc put it best The chief justice is refusing to appear before congress and answer questions about his justices receiving money from special interests This statement brings hollow a court that rejects accountability for itself It roads its own legitimacy to hold others accountable in turn and that is an excellent point This is precisely why the court is facing a legitimacy crisis perhaps worse than the lochner era legitimacy crisis But to be fair I mean simply politely inviting roberts to testify was never going to lead to real accountability Real accountability in my opinion comes comes in the form of meaningful investigations and actual impeachments Now there are senators like chris murphy and angus king and lisa murkowski Who have introduced legislation to force the court to adopt a binding code of ethics? But I think that you have to take it a step further That's fine and expected but you need to do what senator ed marquis is doing by actually calling explicitly for justices to Resign like clarence domis. So as the new republic reports quote I will say what needs to be said clarence domis should resign from the supreme court of the united states His reputation is unsalvageable the massachusetts senator ed marquis said it is evident that he cannot judge right from wrong So why should he be judging the country's most important cases on the highest court? marquis made the comments while flanked by representative iana presley and senator elizabeth warren in boston During the kickoff of a 20 stop tour focused on advocating for tighter ethical restrictions on the supreme court. Good That's what I want to see now We've seen house representatives like alexandria acasio-cortez and ilhan omar called for thomas's impeachment or resignation before But it's really nice to see some senators start to join those calls Because if there isn't enough pressure then he's not going to budge if you just have a couple of House of representatives members say yeah, he should resign, but the calls aren't overwhelming It's not going to affect him and with that being said Still the choice ultimately with these calls for him to resign Is up to him. He doesn't have to heed their calls The problem here is that these justices have already proven that they're not going to hold themselves accountable They won't even hold themselves to the same standards of district and appeals court judges So why should we expect them to listen when people say that they should resign? They won't because when you have like this lifetime appointment It probably affects you In a deeply deeply psychological way, right? Like you probably feel untouchable So the only way to get actual accountability is to impeach them impeach thomas Investigate every remaining justice on the court and rebalance the court by adding more justices who aren't extremist Theocrats, but I mean all of these recommendations. It's it's nothing more than wishful thinking because it'll never happen But if those actions specifically aren't taken then there probably will never be accountability