...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.“I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it,” Alito said Friday, referencing Congressional Democrats’ recent efforts to to mandate stronger ethics rules. “No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court—period.”
“I don’t know that any of my colleagues have spoken about it publicly … But I think it is something we have all thought about,” he told the Journal.
His remarks sparked pushback from a slew of House Democrats.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) argued Congress would always have regulation power over the high court.
“Dear Justice Alito: You’re on the Supreme Court in part because Congress expanded the Court to 9 Justices,” Lieu posted Friday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Congress can impeach Justices and can in many cases strip the Court of jurisdiction.”
“Congress has always regulated you and will continue to do so,” he added. “You are not above the law.”
[...]
“Alito’s next opinion piece in the WSJ is about to be ‘I am a little king, actually. The Constitution doesn’t explicitly say I’m not,’” [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) posted.]
[...]
Both California Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) also responded to the justice’s remarks, calling his view “controversial.”
“This view is more than controversial; it’s incorrect,” Porter said on X. “This is coming from a justice who tried to hide the fact that he accepted luxury vacations on private jets. As a government official, I welcome the American people holding me accountable—why doesn’t Justice Alito?”
Schiff, referring to the ProPublica report that revealed an undisclosed Alaskan fishing trip the justice accepted in 2008 that was paid for by a conservative donor, said Alito’s view shows why an “enforceable code of ethics” is needed. The investigation — paired with another that revealed Justice Clarence Thomas received financial gifts without disclosing them — ultimately led to lawmakers’ push for the ethics review.
[...]
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the sponsor of a bill to reform Supreme Court ethics standards and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also shared on social media that the Journal author of the interview with Alito is the lawyer for Leonard Leo, a prominent conservative legal activist who reportedly organized a fishing trip to Alaska that Alito attended alongside Paul Singer, a hedge fund manager whose plane they took.
“The lawyer who ‘wrote’ this is also the lawyer blocking our investigation into Leonard Leo’s Supreme Court freebies,” Whitehouse tweeted.
[...]
“[T]his is a fancy way of telling everyone to pound sand because he’s untouchable," [said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).]
The Hill
UPDATE 10:47 am:
Not that he wouldn't have been eager to overturn Roe without their funding.
UPDATE 03:24 pm:
No comments:
Post a Comment