Justice Alito’s arrogance threatens the Court
May 30, 2024
In an act oozing with contempt for the American people and reckless disregard for the Supreme Court, Justice Alito refused to recuse himself from cases involving Trump's election interference and unlawful retention of national defense documents. Alito sent two letters to members of Congress asserting that “no reasonable person” would conclude that Alito is required to recuse himself. See Letter from Samuel Alito to Senators Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse.
In his letter to Durbin and Whitehouse, Alito advances factual defenses that were shown to be false or misleading before Alito sent the letter to the Senators. As noted in articles in the NYTimes and Newsweek, Alito’s claim that the Stop the Steal flag was flown in retaliation after a dispute with a neighbor is false. Alito flew the Stop the Steal flag one month prior to the neighborhood dispute. See NYTimes, The Alitos, the Neighborhood Clash and the Upside-Down Flag (accessible to all) and Newsweek, Samuel Alito's Flag Claims Challenged.
Alito also seeks to avoid the controversy by claiming that
His wife is a co-owner of their Virginia home and owner of their beach house, so she “has the right to use the property as she sees fit.”
His “wife is a private citizen, and she possesses the same First Amendment, rights as every other American. She makes her own decisions, and I have always respected her right to do so.”
He “had no involvement in the decision to fly” the Appeal to Heaven flag.
He did not know that the Appeal to Heaven flag supported the “Stop the Steal” message.
His “wife likes flags,” while Alito “does not.”
It is a sad day when a Supreme Court justice lies to US Senators and the American people over a matter of national urgency. But even if we credit Alito’s falsehoods, the question of his recusal is not a close one.
Let’s make this easy. Suppose Alito’s wife flew a Swastika flag over their joint residence for three days. Alito then claims that he asked his wife to remove the flag but she refused. He also claims he did not understand the antisemitic meaning of the Nazi flag. He is then asked to recuse himself from a case before the Court that seeks to prohibit antisemitic speech. Alito could not credibly claim (as he does here) that “no reasonable person” would believe he is required to recuse himself.
The relevant canon of ethics provides:
A Justice should disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which the Justice's impartiality might reasonably be questioned, that is, where an unbiased and reasonable person who is aware of all relevant circumstances would doubt that the Justice could fairly discharge his or her duties.” Canon 3(B)(1)-(2), Code of Conduct for Justices of the Supreme Court.
Tens of millions of Americans reasonably doubt that Alito can fairly discharge his duties. Alito is gaslighting the American people—a technique he learned from Trump. Having been caught in his lie he is doubling down on the lie—while pretending to be aggrieved that Americans doubt his veracity.
This debacle is a stain on the Court and an indictment of Justice Robert’s leadership. His silence is an insult to the American people. He is the Chief Justice of the United States—not merely of the Supreme Court. He holds an office created by and mentioned in the Constitution. He has failed miserably in discharging his duties to oversee the courts of the United States.
What can we do? As always, we can gain control of Congress and the Presidency in order to expand the Court and impose an enforceable code of ethics on the Court.
But is there anything else? Representative Jamie Raskin penned an op-ed in the New York Times arguing that the other justices on the Court can force Alito to recuse himself. See Jamie Raskin: How to Force Justices Alito and Thomas to Recuse Themselves in the Jan. 6 Cases. (Accessible to all.)
Rep. Raskin writes that the DOJ “can petition the other seven justices to require Justices Alito and Thomas to recuse themselves not as a matter of grace but as a matter of law.”
Raskin continues:
The constitutional and statutory standards apply to Supreme Court justices. The Constitution, and the federal laws under it, is the “supreme law of the land,” and the recusal statute explicitly treats Supreme Court justices like other judges.
This recusal statute, if triggered, is not a friendly suggestion. It is Congress’s command, binding on the justices, just as the due process clause is. The Supreme Court cannot disregard this law just because it directly affects one or two of its justices.
When the arguments are properly before the court, Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Sonia Sotomayor will have both a constitutional obligation and a statutory obligation to enforce recusal standards.
Of course, Jamie Raskin’s approach calls for the cooperation of Roberts, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, as well as Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson. Will that happen? Doubtful, but public pressure may bring about that result.
At a meeting with the newsletter's Founding Members on Wednesday, a reader who is a member of the Supreme Court Bar said that he had just sent a letter to Chief Justice Roberts tendering his resignation. The reader no longer practices before the Supreme Court, so resigning will not interfere with his livelihood.
There are tens of thousands of lawyers in a similar position—they were admitted to the Supreme Court as a ceremonial matter or in connection with briefing on which they appeared. If tens of thousands of lawyers sent similar letters of resignation to Justice Roberts—and published those letters in local newspapers and major media outlets—it would increase pressure on Roberts and focus public attention on the ethics scandal on the Supreme Court.
Sounds like something a lawyer’s group defending American democracy should take on as a project! See also, Slate, (3/13/2020), Judge James Dannenberg writes John Roberts a letter resigning from the Supreme Court Bar.
Sadly, it will likely get worse before it gets better. It will get better, but not before tens of millions of Americans believe they should take to streets in protest. The Supreme Court is systematically stripping Americans of civil liberties and constitutional rights for the first time in the history of our nation. That is worth peaceful protests to protect our rights.
It will take time, but the American people will awaken. Justice Alito is pouring accelerant on the conflagration engulfing the Court. It will take more outrageous decisions and arrogant behavior by Alito, Thomas, and Roberts, but the time will come. Until then, each of us must elevate the crisis on the Supreme Court as an issue that deserves our undivided attention in 2024.
RFK Jr. PAC to publish “tell-all” by Hunter Biden’s former wife
If anyone is still under the delusion that RJK Jr. is something other than a stalking horse for Trump, it was revealed on Wednesday that a PAC supporting Kennedy will publish a “tell-all” book by Hunter Biden’s former wife. See CNBC, RFK Jr. donor to publish Hunter Biden ex's tell-all memoir (cnbc.com).
The publishing company owner said that the “memoir contains revelations that could well impact the outcome of the 2024 election.”
To be clear, the mother of the president’s granddaughter is working to defeat the grandfather’s bid for a second term of the presidency by selling dirt about the girl’s drug-addicted father.
It just doesn’t get any more disgusting than that. And RFK Jr. is behind it all. Tell a friend.
What’s at stake in 2024
At least once a week, I receive a note from a parent telling me that their son or daughter will not vote for Biden because he supports Israel. Many (but not all) of those letters ask me to articulate reasons why their son or daughter should vote for Biden, notwithstanding his ongoing support for Israel.
I wrote the following note today in response to a reader who sent a email about his son. I thought it might be helpful to other readers having conversations with adult children who are considering not voting for Biden.
I do not recommend forwarding this list to a son or daughter with a note saying, “Read this.” Conversations about the war in Gaza and support for Biden are difficult and should be approached with caution, respect, deference, and due regard for timing. Consider this list as a resource when the opportunity presents itself for such a discussion.
Here it is:
Trump has threatened to cancel the visas of students protesting in support of Palestinians and “send them home” immediately.
Trump is a much stronger supporter of Netanyahu than Biden and will not put any pressure on Netanyahu to end civilian casualties, while Biden has been putting significant pressure on Netanyahu to avoid civilian casualties.
Trump has promised to round up, imprison, and deport ten million immigrants using the US military, which will cause a humanitarian and civil rights disaster in the US, including the deportation of US citizens based on their surnames, language preference, and ethnicity.
Moreover, supporting Trump increases the likelihood that
Your son’s sisters, girlfriend, and female friends will be demoted to second-class citizens by being denied access to abortions, contraception, and IVF; they and their doctors will face ruinous criminal and civil penalties, even for miscarriages that seem “suspicious” to the fundamentalist police.
Your son’s LGBTQ friends will lose their right to marry and can be legally discriminated against by anyone who claims a religious basis for doing so.
Your son’s Black and Hispanic friends will see their right to vote diluted or denied entirely.
Trump will pull out of the Paris Climate Accords, threatening your son’s health, safety, and economic security and that of his children.
Trump will weaken NATO, increasing the likelihood that your son and his friends will be sent to fight in conflicts in Europe to stop Russia’s advances against former USSR republics.
Your son’s friends will continue to be saddled with crushing student debt.
Your son and his friends will lose guaranteed access to healthcare through the Affordable Care Act.
Your son’s parents’ economic security will be threatened by cuts to Medicare and Social Security.
Rights to free speech on social media will be suppressed when they do not comport with MAGA ideology.
The DOJ and FBI will turn into the equivalent of the German Stasi—the personal guard of a despotic ruler.
The Supreme Court will be further stacked with reactionary justices who will reign during most of your son’s lifetime, implementing white Christian nationalism in place of an open, tolerant, pluralistic democracy that maintains the separation between church and state.
If your son is still pursuing an education, his academic curriculum will be determined by the likes of Moms for Liberty, the Federalist Society, Steven Miller, Ron DeSantis, and Marjorie Taylor Green
The Civil Service will be replaced with MAGA loyalists who will ignore the Constitution and laws of the US to implement Trump's policies of revenge and hate
Your son should lobby Joe Biden to change policy, protest the administration’s policy, and organize resistance to that policy all he wants. But threatening to withhold his vote is wrong and self-destructive. It will encourage others to abandon Biden by giving legitimacy to the idea that there is an equivalency between Biden’s support for Israel and the multitude of deprivations and injuries Trump will inflict on hundreds of millions of Americans during a second Trump term.
Opportunity for reader engagement
Postcards To Voters volunteers across the country are working on postcards for Michael Kripchak, the Democrat in the special election on June 11 for US Congress in Ohio’s 6th Congressional District. We have one more week to write and mail, and we need help to complete the list of addresses for Democratic voters in the district!
Michael faces a tough challenge, but turnout is expected to be very low, so anything could happen! His opponent’s slogan is “Guns, Oil, Trump.”
All you need to help are postcards, a pen, and stamps. Use this PTV Linktr.ee to get started! There will be lots of important races so great to get started! And all Democratic organizing in Ohio now will help Senator Sherrod Brown in November! Thank you!
Concluding Thoughts
Uncertainty is uncomfortable. Our minds spend much of their unconscious thrumming creating the illusion of certainty where the range of outcomes is unbounded and the number of variables is unknowable. Yet, we convince ourselves we live in a coherent reality. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. We impose order and meaning in our lives—consciously and unconsciously. If we didn’t, we couldn’t make it through the day.
The 2024 election is an exercise in massive uncertainty. Finding the narrative to navigate that uncertainty is up to us—a conscious act of will that creates our path to success. While we can’t ignore undeniable facts and physical reality, we can control our response to both.
The GOP propaganda machine senses that Trump is slipping into madness and incoherence, so they have begun posting stories in right-wing media that Democrats are panicking. What’s their evidence? One author has a friend who is texting other friends about concern for Biden’s prospects. That’s what passes for journalism in right-wing media today.
Despite the flimsy premise of the “Democrats are panicking articles,” there is a grain of truth in the stories. When we express doubt because we are uncomfortable with uncertainty, we encourage others to fall into a narrative of doubt and despair. But if we spread hope based on realistic possibilities of victory, we create a permission structure for others to feel hopeful.
Uncertainty is the steady state, so don’t waste time bemoaning or regretting that fact. Accept it and move forward.
Which outcome will motivate Democrats and Independents to show up at the polls in 2024: A hopeful, positive outlook rooted in reality, or a fearful, negative outlook based on imagined fears? The answer is obvious: Be an ambassador of hope and confidence. The voters you inspire to show up at the polls could be the difference between defeat and victory!
Talk to you tomorrow!
Not voting for Biden because of Gaza is like the idiots in my generation (of whom I was one of the idiots) who refused to vote for Humphrey in 1968 because of Vietnam. By so doing, we gave Tricky Dick Nixon is 50,000 popular vote "majority" over Humphrey, which led to four more years of war in Vietnam and the majority of American and Asian deaths, with Nixon and the war criminal Henry Kissinger finally forced by their failures to accept a peace agreement in December 1972 that was EXACTLY THE SAME as what the Johnson Administration agreed to in November 1968 before Nixon committed treason and torpedoed the agreement so he could get elected.
Not voting for Humphrey meant Nixon was able to create the Southern Strategy that brought the former unreconstructed Confederacy into the GOP and ultimately gave us Donald Trump.
If anybody's son or daughter is thinking of doing this out of youthful ignorance, the result they will get by so doing will be the EXACT OPPOSITE of what they wanted that led them to not vote. It happens every time.
I have been writing to Senator Dick Durbin, Chair of the Judiciary Committee, and the one who could get impeachment hearings going, to start investigating both Alito and Thomas for impeachment. Yesterday I got a letter from him. It said, yada, yada, yada. In essence he was listing what he has done, and then put it on Chief Justice Roberts to run the court. NO, NO and NO! I immediately responded that Roberts has his own wife who is making them millions off of her connection to the court, and as such, is not the one who is going to be on the right side of history. Durbin needs to do it or step down. I have said if he is afraid, he should resign from the committee and let someone else do the job. I will be writing him again today. I am an Illinois resident, and a member of Democrats Abroad Germany, which is a subset of Democrats Abroad and a subset of Voters Abroad, where I am active in helping to get Americans to vote, particularly involved in helping new voters to vote from Abroad and putting the word out. We are also involved in local anti fascist activities. If anyone would like to write Senator Dick Durbin, here is his contact information.
https://www.durbin.senate.gov/contact/
I use the "Other" category.