Another SCOTUS justice story

For nearly two years beginning in 2015, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch sought a buyer for a 40-acre tract of property he co-owned in rural Granby, Colo.

Nine days after he was confirmed by the Senate for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, the then-circuit court judge got one: The chief executive of Greenberg Traurig, one of the nation’s biggest law firms with a robust practice before the high court.

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Gorsuch, who held a 20 percent stake, reported making between $250,001 and $500,000 from the sale on his federal disclosure forms.

Gorsuch did not disclose the identity of the purchaser.

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Since then, Greenberg Traurig has been involved in at least 22 cases before or presented to the court.

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In the 12 cases where Gorsuch’s opinion is recorded, he sided with Greenberg Traurig clients eight times and against them four times.

  Politico

So, not dispositive of bias, but he should have recused himself from all of them.

Such a sale would raise ethical problems for officials serving in many other branches of government, but the Supreme Court sets its own rules. It has largely left justices to make their own decisions about when and how to report outside gifts and income.

We're seeing how that has left some to decide very liberally on their own behalf. And Chief Justice Roberts has just refused to answer a call to testify to Congress about it.

It is time for all Americans of a certain age to gather in one spot and deliver an ensemble apology to the late Justice Abe Fortas, who was squeezed off the Supreme Court over financial issues that are penny-ante accusations compared to what's going on among the Nine Wise Souls today. [...] In just the last few days, we have seen the messy death of Clarence Thomas's primary alibi for his lucrative relationship with Texas billionnaire Harlan Crow. In addition, it seems that Justice Neil Gorsuch had similar trouble understanding the financial disclosure forms as regards a sweet deal he made for some property in Colorado.

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The time was when you could count on the Chief Justice to take matters in hand and to waste no time in shoring up the Court's reputation. Instead, of course, we have Chief Justice John Roberts, who is the nominal engineer of a runaway ideological train in his day job, and who doesn't have the clout to do anything about the grubby financial deals that some of his colleagues seem to believe are their rights as lifetime federal employees. Senator Richard Durbin sent Roberts a nice letter asking if he'd like to talk things over with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Roberts politely declined.

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The interesting political aspect of this is that Thomas and Gorsuch have been wallowing in the warm springs of wingnut welfare the way the average conservative Senator or state representative do.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a43709578/neil-gorsuch-colorado-home-disclosure/?src=socialflowTW   Charlie Pierce

I'm waiting for stories on Alito and Kavanaugh.  Because Alito is a total asshole, and we never did find out who paid off Kavanaugh's big debts when Trump nominated him to the bench.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.