Clarence Thomas Is At It Again

Did you know that, before he became a United States Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas was a lawyer for the giant agriculture/chemical company, the Monsanto Corporation??Thomas has participated in ruling on several Monsanto cases during his tenure on the Supreme Court, refusing to recuse himself as required by the Code of Judicial Conduct of the Supreme Court that he has agreed to follow.

Liberal America has previously reported on the Bill that has been circulating around Congress to impose enforceable rules of ethical conduct?on the Supreme Court of the United States. We know that a Supreme Court Justice can be impeached, but in the political environment existing today, the John Boehner House of Representatives is not going to be sending Articles of Impeachment up to the Senate.

The Huffington Post reported in October of 2010 that both Justices Thomas and Scallia?had plans to attend a twice yearly meeting of the Koch brothers; ?Network of business and philanthropic leaders,? scheduled for January 30, 2011, in Rancho Mirage, California.? The letter of invitation came from Charles G. Koch, Chairman and CEO of Koch Industries.

The previous meeting of the Koch brothers ?network of business and philanthropic leaders? had taken place in Aspen, CO in June, 2010.

Responding to the previous and planned continued attendance by Justice Thomas and Scalia at these Koch sponsored meetings, Common Cause, on January 19, 2011, wrote a letter to Eric Holder, Jr.,?the Attorney General of the United States, asking for an investigation into the activities of the two Justices.

Well Mr. Justice Thomas is at it again.? On November 13, 2013, Democratic Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, of New York’s 25th District, sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts, complaining about the plan by Justice Clarence Thomas to be the headline speaker at the ?Federalist Society’s annual black-tie fundraiser,? which took place on November 14, 2013, in Washington, D.C.? And it appears that Justice Thomas did in fact speak at the event.?Both Justice Thomas and Justice Scalia have attended previous Federalist Society fundraising events

 

A complaint alleging judicial misconduct?has also been filed against Justice Thomas in the Seventh Federal Circuit Court.

The Federalist Society?claims to be a group of interested Conservatives and Libertarians who want Judges to rule on what the law is and not what it should be.

An online petition is being circulated urging Chief Justice Roberts:

?to issue a letter of reprimand for Justice Thomas and to publish an official court policy on the ethics issue concerning Justice Thomas’ decision to agree to headline a political fundraising dinner.

And to:

?urge the Supreme Court to adopt its own code of conduct that includes the five canons of the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges.

?President Obama has pointed to the Koch brothers, and other billionaires, and to Citizens United Case, saying that:

I continue to believe that Citizens United contributed to some of the problems we’re having in Washington today. You know, you have some ideological extremist who has big bankroll and they can entirely skew our politics.

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has linked the recent GOP/Teabully Government shutdown to the ruling in Citizens United to the Koch brothers saying that:

These guys are using Citizens United and banging away and doing everything that they can to get more tax breaks for the people on top and more devastating cuts for working families.

Justices Thomas and Scalia did not recuse themselves from the case that the Koch brothers and their ?network of business and philanthropic leaders? had been lobbying hard for the two Justices to rule in their favor. These two Justices represented two of the five votes that brought about major changes in Federal election practices.

The Citizens United case undid?some 70 years of Supreme Court rulings allowing Congress to regulate and to prohibit corporate money in Federal elections.? The case opened the doors to unlimited funding by both corporations and labor unions?which Republicans point to as being the reason why it is not unfair.

 

Republicans in Congress continue to block legislation requiring disclosure of the source of funding for political speech. This allows the public to continue to be duped into believing that advertisements promoting a candidate, or a vote for or against a ballot measure, are coming from a grassroots group of concerned citizens instead of the Koch brothers and others promoting their special agenda.

But could there actually be enough public sentiment to also petition the House of Representatives to initiate the impeachment process for Mr. Justice Thomas and possibly his brother on the Supreme Court in Teabully hypocrisy, Justice Antonin Scalia too? Perhaps the idea could gather some steam, and be something to add to the list of things that the House of Representatives, under the Leadership of Speaker John Boehner, refuses to do.

 

We, the American people, do not have to sit back and just take this pounding from the far right wing, billionaire, corporate interests that have taken over our democracy and infiltrated our Government at all levels, even, as some would say, the Executive Branch.?This is why we must not allow the Congress and the White House to fall into the hands of the GOP/Teabully Party, who would tilt the playing field so far to the right that we the people might never get back on the field again.

Edited by SS

 

 

 

I am the voice of my human parents. Dad, 59, mom 57, both retired lawyers. Dad worked privately as a personal injury lawyer in the Philadelphia, PA area before retirement. He has a BA in Political Science, a Masters in Secondary Social Studies Education and he did some public school teaching before retiring again. Mom also has a BA in Political Science and she spent her entire 33 year career working as an attorney for a US Defense Department Agency located in Philadelphia, PA. She spent the last four years of her career as the Chief Counsel. She retired in April of this year. I have two human brothers, both Graduates of the George Washington University. My older human brother is working his way up in Airport Management at the Philadelphia International Airport. My younger human brother is a Peace Corps veteran.