Going to keep this short because it’s probably a lot of preaching to our own choir, but needs to be stressed more with recent announcements of Justice Department action against Democrats (Menendez and Adams). Yes, if wrongdoing occurred there then it must be investigated. But it’s becoming more and more aggravating that the Dept. seems to be aggressive at investigating Eric Adams for what (so far) appear to be more questionable bases, whereas the (also by now) more blatantly obvious and far more serious crimes and corruption on the Supreme Court so far appear to be getting a pass. Especially as it’s become clear that Clarence Thomas and his wife have been taking bribes from plutocrats, failing to pay taxes on this extra income and engaging in blatant and damaging conflicts of interest. Lots and lots of bribes for a while, and in a way that’s clearly shaping these absolutely critical decisions by a powerful government institution for the whole country (to say nothing about the whiff of corruption also emerging now for others, esp Alito). It’s not obvious why Atty. General Garland and his staff seem to have treated Justice Thomas’ terrible crimes, for which the evidence is becoming overwhelming, with relative kid gloves relative to the comparatively minor questions around Eric Adams that have brought about a much more serious investigation. In fact, the investigations of SCOTUS crimes so far have come out largely (to their great credit) from the work of dogged investigative journalists. But part of this seems it’s a serious misguided belief among some Dems that indicting a SCOTUS justice would “sow divisiveness” in the country (this very quote was on MSNBC around a couple weeks ago).
There are countless fallacies in this thinking, beyond the obvious that the US is already polarized and it’s naive to think the neo-fascist Republicans would play with kid gloves for anyone they identify as a public enemy--just witness what Dr. Fauci of all people is having to deal with now every day. But there are two that are probably most important. One is, Justice Thomas’s crimes are so blatant, so outrageous and so damaging to the credibility of the entire US judicial system, that his relatively scot-free treatment is ruining the authority of the courts in the USA. The nature and extent of the blatant bribery here is the worst criminal corruption ever to hit SCOTUS, far worse than what Abe Fortas had to step down for in the 1960’s. Yes, we realize there’s realpolitik around “no one is above the law” and powerful figures do get certain breaks, but when the crimes are this egregious, it’s an outrage to let the high officials basically get away with them. Would law enforcement and the courts just give Thomas or Alito a pass if they got caught on a camera committing a hit-and-run that put someone in the hospital? Of course not (we’d hope). When the crimes are this obvious—and Thomas’ are a good deal worse in terms of how much they hurt the whole country—they clearly need to be prosecuted to retain even a modest amount of credibility of the Court for the American people.
But there’s another reason that’s even more pertinent and painful, and we know it’s something a lot of you with recent roots or family abroad have probably been hearing about lately. Many of us have come to the US as 1st or 2nd generation immigrants from countries often called “third world”, and in our own group several of us have made recent trips to see family in developing parts of Latin America, Africa, the Mid-east and Asia. Even with all of America’s struggles recently, this country is still a beacon of hope for millions in places like that, a big reason for what led to so many of our families coming here. And we want to keep it that way. The the respect for America above all is that our institutions have historically, even with their imperfections, had less corruption and a sense of propriety and the social contract—among the most important of these being the Supreme Court. In countries and regions where people feel their dreams stifled and frustrated by corruption, the courts are perhaps the most important institutions for checking the power of the corrupt, and bringing about a sense of justice for the people. And that above all is why the SCOTUS scandals esp by Thomas and Alito are causing such terrible damage to America’s image abroad, and making it that much harder for the United States to forge partnerships and win the respect of people overseas.
In our recent trips overseas, we’ve been hearing something we didn’t encounter before even from many of the most pro-American relatives and neighbors we know—cynicism, and an increasing resignation that the US is falling into the same patterns of corruption that have suffocated the dreams of so many in developing countries over the past few decades. Yes, a lot of this began with Citizens United, and that decision has greatly eroded a lot of the respect the rest of the world once had for the strength of American institutions. It blatantly allows for US elections and policy to be set by a barely concealed form of bribery, and people in developing countries are a lot more aware of this catastrophic ruling than a lot of Americans realize—they know what’s led to the corruption in their countries and failures like Citizens United are a big part of what gets a country there. But as bad as the SCOTUS fail on that ruling was, the recent SCOTUS scandals are even worse. It’s not even thinly concealed bribery—it’s blatant, open bribery, failure to pay taxes in what amounts to millions in bonuses, conflict of interest, arrogant attacks on the law by an institution that’s supposed to guard it and collusion with interested parties on rulings that affect not only the billionaire class, but all Americans. And the misery of developing countries drowning in corruption results, in a major part, by actions such as these.
That’s why DOJ’s timidity about prosecuting this blatant SCOTUS corruption is causing so much dismay not only for Americans, but even more for people abroad who once looked up to us. What does the promise of America even mean when our very High Court, supposed to be the watchdog of the rule of law in the country, is participating and furthering the very corruption and official high crimes it’s supposed to be guarding against? How are we a model to other countries when our high officials are committing the very corruption and insider conflicts of interest we point to them to reform? And what do America’s checks and balances even mean when the DOJ, which is supposed to be prosecute such crimes by high officials (especially when they’re this blatant and damaging to the nation), is too cowed by naive wishful thinking about “comity” to take action for such blatant violations of the law by high officials, that investigative journalists spend years to uncover? Thomas’ and SCOTUS’ clearly evident corruption is doing horrible damage to the US capacity to win support abroad, far more than we often realize, and for that reason alone the DOJ really needs to step up here. And why we must move to expand the Court once we have the power to do so—the current Court has done unimaginable damage to the US judiciary and the legitimacy of its own decisions.