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LetMyPeopleVote

(158,146 posts)
Thu Jan 9, 2025, 09:59 AM Jan 9

Alito and Trump make the Supreme Court's troubles even worse

As the far-right justice faces yet another controversy, he doesn’t exactly have a deep reservoir of credibility he can turn to in response.
https://bsky.app/profile/stevebenen.com/post/3lfctpl6a4c2c

As Samuel Alito faces yet another ethics mess of his own making, he doesn't exactly have a deep reservoir of credibility he can turn to in response.

Only about a third of Americans have confidence in the courts. Alito's in a position to push that number lower.



https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/alito-trump-make-supreme-courts-troubles-even-worse-rcna186946

While I can appreciate Roberts’ concerns about the high court’s institutional reputation, if he wants to better understand why public confidence is faltering to historic degrees, there’s no shortage of evidence for the chief justice to consider. Take the latest NBC News report, for example.

Justice Samuel Alito confirmed Wednesday that he took a phone call from Donald Trump one day before the president-elect asked the Supreme Court to halt his upcoming sentencing, but insisted that the case was not discussed. Alito said in a statement that they spoke Tuesday afternoon after one of his former law clerks, William Levi, “asked me to take a call from President-elect Trump regarding his qualifications to serve in a government position.


So let me see if I have this straight. According to the official version of events, Trump wanted to speak to the Supreme Court conservative on Tuesday about an applicant for a job in his incoming administration. As The New York Times’ report noted, it’s unclear why the president-elect would personally “make a call to check references, a task generally left to lower-level aides.

The two men did, in fact, chat — again, according to the official version of events — and one day later, Trump’s lawyers filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court, as part of a larger effort to delay sentencing in the Republican’s criminal case in New York.......

We are, after all, talking about a sitting justice who has earned a reputation as the Supreme Court’s most unyielding ideologue, who has delivered a series of overtly political speeches, who’s issued public endorsements of a conservative advocacy group’s work, who thought it’d be a good idea to defend the Supreme Court’s integrity at a pro-Trump organization exactly two weeks before the 2022 midterm elections, who’s appeared a bit too cozy with The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, and who’s declared his indifference to congressional oversight in ways that were panned as “stunningly wrong.”

And did I mention the justice’s flag controversies? Because they’re another piece of the same unsightly mosaic.

Only about a third of Americans have confidence in their own country’s judiciary, but there’s no reason to assume that number can’t drop further.

Roberts needs to make sure that Alito and Thomas recuse themselves on any issue regarding trump and the J6 report
9 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Alito and Trump make the Supreme Court's troubles even worse (Original Post) LetMyPeopleVote Jan 9 OP
Prof. Tribe-"SCOTUS's credibility is plummeting... And it's due to self-inflicted wounds.. LetMyPeopleVote Jan 9 #1
Troubles? Johnny2X2X Jan 9 #2
Leonad Leo gave the USSC a long lasting Fascist majority. magicarpet Jan 9 #3
roberts will never do that. rampartd Jan 9 #4
They do show how crooked the Supreme Court has become. republianmushroom Jan 9 #5
Alito needs to recuse himself on any issue involving trump LetMyPeopleVote Jan 9 #6
None of the corrupt 6 SCOTUS justices give a shit about "credibility" Arazi Jan 9 #7
Alito did not recuse LetMyPeopleVote Jan 9 #8
Newly reported details spark fresh questions about Alito's call with Trump LetMyPeopleVote Jan 13 #9

Johnny2X2X

(22,267 posts)
2. Troubles?
Thu Jan 9, 2025, 10:04 AM
Jan 9

They don't have troubles, 5 of the justices there no longer care about this stuff at all, they're openly taking bribes and don't even try to hide the fact that they'll do whatever Republicans tell them to do now.

magicarpet

(17,596 posts)
3. Leonad Leo gave the USSC a long lasting Fascist majority.
Thu Jan 9, 2025, 10:45 AM
Jan 9

..... Chief Justice Roberts intends to use it to get the Nazi agenda into high gear. Owning and decimating the Libs, via rulings of the court, is job number one. Nothing will get in their way or stop them.

rampartd

(1,532 posts)
4. roberts will never do that.
Thu Jan 9, 2025, 11:21 AM
Jan 9

there will be no ruling. jan 20 is what, 10 days away?

that clock is running and we are out of time outs. noon on jan 20 the report is as dead as anything in the jfk assassination files.

LetMyPeopleVote

(158,146 posts)
6. Alito needs to recuse himself on any issue involving trump
Thu Jan 9, 2025, 02:46 PM
Jan 9


Trump had a telephone call with SCOTUS Justice Alito on the eve of the day he petitioned SCOTUS to stop his sentencing for his election interference felony conviction.

Both of them just gave Americans and the Code of Conduct for Supreme Court Justices the finger.

"A judge shall not initiate, permit, or consider ex parte communications, or consider other communications made to the judge outside the presence of the parties or their lawyers, concerning a pending* or impending matter."

Trump and Alito and the rest of the MAGA GOP on Roberts Court think the rule of law does not apply to them.

And Chief Justice Roberts want to know why his Court is not respected by Americans.

Look no further than the president elect and Samuel Alito.

Arazi

(7,506 posts)
7. None of the corrupt 6 SCOTUS justices give a shit about "credibility"
Thu Jan 9, 2025, 02:57 PM
Jan 9

They’re laughing at the handwringing as they plot to destroy judicial norms.

LetMyPeopleVote

(158,146 posts)
8. Alito did not recuse
Thu Jan 9, 2025, 08:45 PM
Jan 9


Justice Alito, who recently talked with the Convicted Felon recommending a former law clerk of his for an administration job, saw no need to recuse himself from tonight’s Supreme Court decision on a Trump appeal.
This is an arrogant disregard for basic judicial ethics.

LetMyPeopleVote

(158,146 posts)
9. Newly reported details spark fresh questions about Alito's call with Trump
Mon Jan 13, 2025, 07:21 PM
Jan 13

By some measures, the controversy surrounding the president-elect's recent chat with the Supreme Court justice is intensifying, not dissipating.
https://bsky.app/profile/stevebenen.com/post/3lfg4knpids2u

In 2016, Bill Clinton and AG Loretta Lynch exchanged pleasantries at an airport, and it was treated like a hair-on-fire scandal.

The fact that Trump helped lead the charge seems relevant anew — given his far more controversial chat with Samuel Alito.



https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/newly-reported-details-spark-fresh-questions-alitos-call-trump-rcna187182

True to form, the justice ignored the pressure and signaled his willingness to give Trump the relief he sought. (Alito was, however, in the minority. A day later, the president-elect was sentenced.)

The controversy surrounding Tuesday’s phone call, however, isn’t over just yet. The New York Times reported that the chat and its timing “flouted any regard for even the appearance of a conflict of interest.” But that wasn’t the only relevant angle to the story:

The circumstances were extraordinary for another reason: Justice Alito was being drawn into a highly personalized effort by some Trump aides to blackball Republicans deemed insufficiently loyal to Mr. Trump from entering the administration, according to six people with knowledge of the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.


On the surface, it’s a difficult dynamic to understand. The lawyer in question, William Levi, worked with Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah on Capitol Hill, clerked with Alito, worked with the Trump transition team, and he’s even the grandson of a legendary former attorney general. What’s the problem?

According to the Times’ report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, Levi has an unexpected “black mark against his name.”

In the first Trump administration, he served as the chief of staff to Attorney General William P. Barr, who is now viewed as a “traitor” by Mr. Trump for refusing to go along with his efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. ... [Levi’s] bid for a permanent position has been stymied by Mr. Trump’s advisers who are vetting personnel for loyalty. ... As Mr. Trump puts together his second administration, Mr. Barr is among a handful of prominent Republicans who are viewed with such suspicion that others associated with them are presumptively not to be given jobs in the administration, according to people familiar with the dynamic.


If the Times’ report is accurate, the entire story is getting more bizarre, not less. (Note, none of the relevant players responded to the newspaper's request for comment.)

Time will tell if there are additional developments, but in the meantime, let’s not forget that in June 2016, Bill Clinton exchanged pleasantries on a tarmac with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch. By all appearances, it was a fairly brief and inconsequential social interaction, and such conversations are not uncommon when prominent political figures are in the same place at the same time.

I remember the attacks on Hillary Clinton due to the tarmac incident. There is clearly a double standard here
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