Jim Hightower's Radio Lowdown

Why “Supreme Court Ethics” is an Oxymoron


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Let me be blunt: The problem with today’s Supreme Court is that it consists of too many 5-watt bulbs sitting in 100-watt sockets.

While most of the nine members are assumed to be brilliant, “smart” is as smart does, and this court’s right-wing majority wallows in stupid, consistently pushing plutocracy, autocracy, and theocracy over the democratic will of the people. Compounding this stupidity, many of the judges have flagrantly accepted “gifts” of cash, luxury vacations, and other freebies from the corporate and right-wing interests that have benefitted from the Court’s rulings. Yet, caught red-handed, the narcissistic jurists assert that We the People should just trust their integrity.

These nine legal powerbrokers, who pose as America’s arbiters of justice, have even exempted themselves from having an ethics code, allowing each one to make up their own, unwritten ethical rules. Thus, corruption flourishes; so the public, Congress, and the media have finally demanded that, at the very least, the eminences be subjected to basic ethics. “Okay, OK,” the nine finally grumped, “We’ll sign onto a code.

BUT… their acquiescence included a killer gotcha: They would write their own rules of behavior! Sure enough, their 14-page code is a toothless watchdog with no bark, much less bite. It starts by snarling that the great unwashed simply fail to understand that the entire court is, as the Chief Justice had earlier proclaimed, “jurists of exceptional integrity.” So, the new “code” promises boilerplate ethical behavior, but provides no enforcement mechanism beyond claiming the judges will police each other.

If these brilliant lawyers can’t (or won’t) write a straightforward code of judicial ethics, why would we trust them to render “justice” for us? We have to democratize this omnipotent Third Branch of our government. To get involved, go to FixTheCourt.com.

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