Fix the Court, the group that released the findings, calculated the total in gifts from January 2004 to December 2023 and said the nine current justices received 344 gifts totaling nearly $3million.

Supreme Court justices received $3million in gifts throughout the last two decades, a watchdog group revealed on Thursday - with controversial Justice Clarence Thomas accounting for nearly 80 percent.

Thomas, who has come under fire for accepting gifts from billionaire Harlan Crow, led the group of justices with the highest value of gifts accepted at $2.4million, according to Court News Service.

Fix the Court, the group that released the findings, calculated the total in gifts from January 2004 to December 2023 and said the nine current justices received 344 gifts totaling nearly $3million.

  • _number8_@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    so why can’t anybody do anything? why does he still get to wear the robe and have such a say in the world? maybe the good guys should start breaking rules as well to get things done since the right has already established that precedent. they’re not gonna just start playing nice because the democrats are.

    • Erasmus@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Because all US politicians do this. Including all the ones on the Supreme Court. The entire system is corrupt. That’s why Roberts wont go before anyone and discuss it or why no one is really pushing too hard to do anything to him about it. They all do the same thing in one form or the other.

      • fukurthumz420@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        so be smart about it. all it takes is one lone wolf that doesn’t keep a cell phone to study movements of these figures.

    • ripcord@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      At this point, you really haven’t learned the answer to this question? Like, the real answer? Even though this comes up in every article on this for the last year at least?

    • TheOubliette@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      This is how the American system works. He’s just not being classy about it.

      Congressmembers do insider trading all the time and move into industry positions after they leave, having helped those exact industries (following the requests of their lobbyists). Congressmembers go straight to the top of boards for weapons manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, etc.

      Regulators and other officials do the same thing. They cycle back and forth between the industries they’re supposed to reign in and supposedly the job where they do reign them in. Work for the FCC -> work for a telecom -> FCC -> telecom.

      In terms of the Supreme Court itself, it is an illegitimate body that has legitimacy only because the other two branches give it to them. Their major powers are not in the constitution and they have very few rules to follow.

      You are right that gaining power to establish justice is what really matters, not “the rules” (which are always selectively applied). But it really depends on what you mean by the “good guys”. If you mean Democrats, unfortunately they are also deeply embedded in this system and are not champions against it. They maintain power through the same kinds of industry connections and exit strategies and insider training. Their electoral apparatus is built on getting donations from companies and their executives so that they can buy ads and canvassers and phone bankers and data nerds to reach out and drive likely voters to turn out for them.

      I’ve been in high-ish level Dem offices on various occasions. They put a lot of effort into shmoozing with donors and doing everything they can to get more money from likely donors. Big and small, though big get the most attention. The idea of building their base of power from the action of motivated grassroots individuals is rejected. And that’s the only real base of power that is likely to reflect justice.

  • Corigan@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    Annnnnnd the party of law and order will want to do something about this right? RiiiiIiightt?

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      There’s a big point. A gun point.

      The difference between you and Clarence Thomas is simply what each of you can get away with. Cops won’t come knocking on Thomas’s door for this. In fact, they’ll guard his door.

    • WhyDoYouPersist@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Every single time dude. Every time I see what a politician was paid to worsen their constituents’ lives, the dollar amount tied to it is just never that remarkable, especially in the context of a world where Elon Musk gets a $56bn pay package for nothing in return.

  • rayyy@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Nothing wrong with working for the highest pay - just let your employer know who you are really working for.

  • Wahots@pawb.social
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    4 months ago

    I wish we had public servants who did their fucking job for their base pay, just like the rest of us do.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      You’re assuming this isn’t the job of the nation’s highest court.

      Take the money, legitimize the misconduct, channel people’s rage into impotence.

      It’s so easy to forget that a certain Senator from Delaware voted Clarence Thomas out of committee in 1989, rather than killing the nomination, because his own corporate bosses told him to.

      30 years later, Thomas is doing exactly what he was put on the bench to accomplish. And Biden’s response is to shrug helplessly and tell you that you should have voted harder.

  • jaybone@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    lol that isn’t shit. The corporations buy and sell this guy like a slave. 2.4M are pennies to these people. That money is nothing to them. Fuck you Clarence Thomas.