…the #judiciary is an equal branch of #government & congressional #Democrats have limited opportunities to enact concrete changes.…
#Republicans, who control the #House, oppose legislation to tighten ethical guidelines for the justices & have portrayed overhaul as a political effort to damage the legitimacy of a #conservative#SCOTUS that has delivered them major victories on #abortion & other issues [+ they worked decades to install this court].
“The importance of confirming judges is no excuse for his failure to exercise his committee’s #oversight authority to investigate the most serious #ethics & #corruption scandals in #SupremeCourt history, especially when the few judges #Durbin hopes to confirm before November would inevitably see their rulings shredded by the Court’s captured #RightWing#supermajority in service to its #billionaire backers,” Aronson said.
#Durbin also announced action on another #oversight issue, which pleased progressive activists including Aronson. The #Judiciary Cmte had issued subpoenas for #Texas#billionaire#HarlanCrow & #conservative activist #LeonardLeo in Nov related to their interactions w/the justices, but had not enforced them. The Cmte reached a deal w/Crow on Thurs in which he disclosed he paid for an additional 3 trips on a private jet by #ClarenceThomas.
#Billionaire Elon #Musk's record-breaking $US56 billion pay package approved by #Tesla shareholders
Shareholders also approved a proposal to re-elect his brother, Kimbal Musk, and son of media mogul Rupert #Murdoch, James Murdoch, as board members.
#Senate#Judiciary Committee uncovers 3 additional undisclosed trips that Justice #ClarenceThomas took as a gift from #HarlanCrow. These were not included even in Thomas' revised financial disclosure.
Info was obtained via the cmte's subpoena authorization for Crow.
The #SCOTUS justice flew to Montana & other destinations on the #billionaire#GOP#megadonor’s dime. Crow’s lawyer revealed these flights to the Senate #Judiciary Committee, whose ongoing investigation was sparked by #ProPublica’s reporting.
A #juror was quickly dismissed at the start. She was among the 7 already selected, she said she was very worried that despite the fact the court ruled to keep jurors’ name secret, she would still be exposed & targeted.
Can we quit saying “A fellow #billionaire helped bail #donaldtrump out”? #Trump is not a fucking billionaire. If you believe otherwise, you are too stupid to have a say in our #democracy.
"As people increasingly experience overlapping #climate impacts, it is critical that the #media articulately convey the interconnected nature of climate change," said McAllister. "There is a biased narrative, that reporting in less-resourced countries is less comprehensive, but we found the opposite: Media in the more-resourced countries have much to learn from media in the most vulnerable countries."
by Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott & Alex Mierjeski @ProPublica
#Thomas has attended at least two #Koch donor summits, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a #political network that has brought multiple #cases before the #SupremeCourt.
#ClarenceThomas’ involvement in the events is part of a yearslong, personal relationship w/the #KochBrothers that has remained almost entirely out of public view. It developed over years of trips to the Bohemian Grove, a #secretive all-men’s retreat in Northern California. #Thomas has been a regular at the Grove for 2 decades, where he stayed in a small camp w/real estate #billionaire#HarlanCrow & the Kochs….
Tax data obtained by @ProPublica provides a glimpse of what congressional investigators would find if Crow were to open his books…. Crow’s voyages w/Thomas, the data shows, contributed to a nice side benefit: They helped reduce Crow’s tax bill.…
The classified documents case will make use of a recording which indicates that #Trump had a highly sensitive document which he knew was NOT declassified.
The chain of evidence looks strong and while there is much news media spinning, a court of law is more rigorous environment where focus on fact is primary
In an opinion essay in The WSJ, Justice #Alito responded to questions about his #PrivateJet travel to a #luxury fishing trip w/a #GOP#MegaDonor#billionaire who frequently has cases before the #SupremeCourt hours before the ProPublica article was published.
The justice wrote he was not required to #disclose the trip or #recuse himself from his benefactor’s cases.