"Billionaire political donor Harlan Crow provided at least three previously undisclosed private jet trips to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in recent years, an investigation by Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats has found."
~ Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski
Today in Labor History June 13, 1914: A riot erupted at the Miner's Union Day parade in Butte Montana. Frustration and mistrust of the primary union, WFM, had been growing for decades. In 1914, miners were being paid only $3.50 a day, the same as in 1878, despite the fact that the price of copper had more than doubled in that same time period. Also, the WFM failed to get hundreds of Finnish miners reinstated after they were fired en masse, or to call a strike in support of these workers. Dissident union members, led by the IWW, accused WFM members of ballot stuffing and being in the pay of the copper bosses. They destroyed WFM headquarters, burned records and stole $1,600. Cops watched and laughed, but did nothing to stop the rioting. During the riot, acting mayor Frank Curran was pushed out of second-story window. And the home of P.K. Sullivan, a WFM official, was dynamited. Overall, however, the riot was a disaster for all the miners. The bosses exploited the conflict by recognizing no unions, making the Butte mines open shops, without any official union representation, from 1914 to 1934.
The conflict between the two unions went back many years. Two of the WFM’s best organizers, Big Bill Haywood and Vincent St. John, helped cofound the more radical IWW in 1905. Initially, the WFM affiliated with the IWW and became their mining section. However, many WFM didn’t like the radicalness of the IWW and later voted to unaffiliate. In 1908, St. John tried to organize a stealth takeover of the WFM, but failed. In 1911, the WFM affiliated with the conservative American Federation of Labor.
Noting recent reports that Clarence Thomas has gotten over $4 million in gifts and Samuel Alito is dedicated to restoring "godliness" to the US, Joyce Vance writes,
"The Supreme Court's ethics issues are finally getting the attention they deserve, and not a minute too soon."
Then she notes that Republicans just blocked a Senate bill that would have strengthened ethics requirements for Supreme Court members.
"It was unnecessary for anyone to adopt a fake identity and secretly tape conversations with Supreme Court justices to find out what they really think. 'By their fruits ye shall know them'. …
Even before the news of this week, it was plain that Alito is closer to Thomas’ wife than Thomas, in terms of his view of law, society and government."
"He is lawless, in fact, in the sense that he will rule in whatever way he needs to in pursuit of his real agenda, which is the establishment of a conservative theocracy and the permanent disempowerment of modern liberalism."
"After that conversation at the bar, Frerick realised that what was happening in the pork industry — this huge consolidation of power and wealth — was happening throughout the US food system.
When he started investigating, he found that a handful of US families controlled most of the US's food production and distribution system, including meat, dairy, grains, fruit and groceries."
Charles Pierce responds to Fix the Court's revelation this week that Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas got over $2.4 million in gifts from 2002 to 2023:
"I didn’t know that the gravy train had a luxury car."
He concludes,
“'The Supreme Court did not immediately respond...' is now carved into the side of the Supreme Court building. In Latin, of course."
Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski report that in a new financial disclosure filing released today, Justice Clarence Thomas acknowledged for the first time two free vacations he has received from Harlan Crow, as reported by ProPublica. His filing says he "inadvertently omitted" those trips from previous filings.
Clarence Thomas belatedly admits luxury trips were paid for by rightwing billionaire
Supreme court justice amended his financial disclosure to confirm rightwing mega-donor Harlan #Crow funded travel
#Thomas’s relationship with Crow set off calls for more transparency by the justices and calls for more transparency.
ProPublica also reported last year that Samuel #Alito, another of the court’s conservative justices, flew on a private jet and vacationed with a billionaire who had business before the court.
Alito was granted a 90-day extension to file his report, something he has routinely sought.
Alito is also under scrutiny after reports from the New York Times that there was an upside-down US #flag flying outside of his home in Virginia as well as an Appeal to Heaven flag flying outside of a beach home in New Jersey.
The former is associated with the January 6 attack on the Capitol and the latter with #Christian#nationalism.
The supreme court’s nine justices all agreed to a code of conduct last year, though some experts have noted it does not go far enough and there is no way to adequately enforce it.
@cdarwin SCOTUS's Code of Conduct needs be drawn up by independent legal scholars, not the partisan "Federalist Society", to align with ethics rules normal federal judges are subjected to.
And every matter possibly corrupting justices' independence (optimistically taken as given) needs to be put on record & requires consequences relating to justices' participation in judicial processes involving actors contributing to possibly influence & corrupt justices' decisions.
Fix the Court adds up the numbers of gifts received by US Supreme Court justices and finds the tally "staggering," especially in the case of Clarence Thomas:
"Per the analysis prepared by Fix the Court, Justice Thomas has received gifts valued at more than $4 million during his tenure on the Court."
#SCOTUS Justice Samuel A. #Alito Jr. has offered multiple accounts of how politically charged flags [#insurrectionist flags] came to fly outside his homes in VA & NJ — the type of display that is generally off-limits for judges, who must remain #impartial & avoid even the appearance of #bias as they handle cases.
"Nine witnesses in the criminal cases against former President Donald Trump have received significant financial benefits, including large raises from his campaign, severance packages, new jobs, and a grant of shares and cash from Trump’s media company."
Perfectly normal. Happens all the time. Nothing to see here.
Todd Beeton surveys the arrogance (and outright corruption) of the Roberts Supreme Court, which thumbs its nose at the American people and the democratic polity of the nation, writing its own ethics code and them arrogantly refusing to give that code any teeth at all. Public confidence in the court is at its lowest levels ever, but nothing or no one seems able to hold the out-of-control Roberts court accountable.
As Todd Beeton says, the only solution to the problem of the arrogant (and corrupt) Roberts Supreme Court is reform. To wit: as Michael Waldman of the Brennan Center maintains, Congress needs to pass a binding code of conduct for the justices, with teeth to assure enforcement.
>300 #House lawmakers were reimbursed ≥$5.2M for #food & #lodging while on official business in Washington last year under a new, #TaxpayerFunded prgm that doesn’t require receipts.
The prgm, which kicked off last yr after a #Republican-led House panel passed it, was intended to make it easier for lawmakers to maintain separate homes in DC & their home districts.
But critics argue that its reliance on the #HonorSystem esp given [#HouseRepublicans dearth of honor] & lack of #transparent record-keeping makes it ripe for abuse.
The reimbursement scheme’s lack of receipt requirements is a “ridiculous loophole … Clearly it becomes very difficult to tell whether or not it’s a legitimate payment & whether it’s proper,” said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the good govt group Public Citizen.
The prgm has only a few rules: Lawmakers cannot be repaid for principal or interest on their mortgages, they can only get reimbursement for days they’re actually working in or flying to DC, & they can’t ask for more than their actual expenses. They’re also subject to daily spending caps determined by the GSA. They are “strongly encouraged,” but not required, to keep #records of their #expenses, acc/to guidance issued by the #House Cmte on Admin.
An earlier version of this article said that Rep #MattGaetz (R-Fla.) was the reimbursement program's top spender for 2023. That analysis was based on data released by the #House as of last week. But additional data The Post reviewed Tuesday showed that Rep #JackBergman (R-Michigan) was reimbursed for more than Gaetz was.
Tho votes were still being counted Tues afternoon & the Modi-led #BJP could still form the govt, it was projected to fall short of its showing in 2014, when #Modi swept to #power on a wave of national #anger over #corruption, or 2019, when buoyed by #nationalist sentiment over a border clash w/ #Pakistan. Such a result would be rare for the politician who has never failed to secure a majority in a 23+yr political career & cultivates an image as a #populist#strongman & a serial winner. #India
"In an unhinged post on Truth Social, convicted felon Donald Trump pleaded for the US Supreme Court to intervene in his state court case before his sentencing hearing in July."