Justice Alito was recently quoted in the WSJ and NY Times as saying that when the Court is attacked, it is the tradition of the legal Bar to come to the aid of the Court, as the justices are prohibited from speaking in their own defense. And as we all know, Supreme Court justices follow the rules governing their own behavior.
Just to be sure we are correct about that, we sent an email to Justice Thomas's chambers to verify our assertion, and received the following response:
"Thank you for your email to Justice Thomas. He is currently at a three-star Michelin restaurant dinner which is being paid for by the "friends of guns for everyone committee". Unfortunately he will be flying on a private jet to Moscow to provide legal advice to President Putin on circumventing the application of the international financial sanctions. He also is finishing an opinion on the teaching of the flat-world theory and why humans did not evolve from apes. Please feel free to email back at a time more convenient. Also check out his 'Justice Thomas Answers Your Questions on Cameo' where the suggested donation is $500 for the justice to leave the greeting message on your phone voicemail."
Getting back to Justice natural birth Alito, here is what he was quoted as saying:
“This type of concerted attack on the court and on individual justices” is, he said, “new during my lifetime.”
He added: “We are being hammered daily, and I think quite unfairly in a lot of instances. And nobody, practically nobody, is defending us. The idea has always been that judges are not supposed to respond to criticisms, but if the courts are being unfairly attacked, the organized bar will come to their defense.”
Of course, maybe why the unprecedented attacks on the court have not heretofore occurred during Alito's lifetime is because the Court has not often overruled sixty years of settled precedent during his lifetime.
But be that as it may, Alito is right and we are wrong. We have not leapt to the defense of the hapless supreme court justices, who are being attacked and cannot defend themselves while floating on their friends' yachts in the Mediterranean.
So, being the consummate defense attorney, we, dear friends, step once more into the breach and defend the undefendable with all our considerable skill. What follows is the defense Alito and his compatriots need and are entitled to.
Every damn word of it.
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Is the Captain dead? Did you bury him under Giant Stadium? The are at least two people already running for judge against incumbents and this blog hasn't covered it including notorious JB. I may cancel my subscription if service doesn't improve.
ReplyDeleteSeems like someone forgot about the attacks on the Warren Court that went as far as a campaign to impeach Justice Warren
ReplyDeleteThe Constitution guarantees everybody a right to a fair trial and competent counsel. The Constitution does not do the same thing for corrupt, skimming, self-aggrandizing jurists. In fact, they have no right to the position (although there are arduous procedures for removing them) or a defense. What they have done - from left to right - is a shame and they need to recognize that the public perceives them this way because the public is not stupid. Also, I wish they would stop hocking their books and things inside of the Courthouse giftshop...is is so cheap and demeaning to the institution.
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ReplyDeleteTo 7:07 AM
THE CAPTAIN RETORTS.
Thank you for caring. It was very touching. And as a thank you please check out today’s Blog Post.
It never ceases to amaze how those on the left or the right can seek rigid enforcement of a standard against those whom they oppose, while ignoring it for those whom they favor, all while pretending (heck, probably believing) that their own motives are pure, pure, pure. No greater offender in this realm than Rumpole.
ReplyDeleteFor a handy catalog of dubious "non-recusals" that comfortably spans the aisle, you can look here.
https://fixthecourt.com/2023/05/recent-times-justice-failed-recuse-despite-clear-conflict-interest/
(Including, for just one example, a glaring example on the left where Justice Sotomayor failed to recuse from a case where her publisher, which paid her $3MM, was a party. In the same case, Justice Breyer, who also had a deal with the publisher, did recuse himself.)
You can look at that list (with 18 examples pretty neatly split along left/right lines), but I doubt you will.
Rump, your deep and angry and universal partisan bias, your ideological blinders, diminish your credibility every time you touch a subject like this.
Not here to defend Thomas, especially, but to point out the glaring political lean of every single story anyone seems to do about this topic, left or right. You could so better. You could, but I bet you won't.
The defense for Justice Alito is that he was not the mastermind of destroying our Constitution, he was maybe fourth in command. And so far it seems like outside his work he is not as unethical as Justice Thomas.
ReplyDelete11.24's comment is why the press and Senate are pressing for an ethics law to have the same rule for the Supremes as for the other federal court judges.
ReplyDeleteRumpole's satirical comment about Alito was a little over the top, but I have not seen anywhere a response by lawyers who have leaped to Alito's defense, and support Alito's feeling of not being loved.