Integrity and Trust. Over the past year or so, the Supreme Court, once the most trusted of the three branches of government, has lost both its integrity and the trust of the public. I turn to the wisdom of Robert Reich for his ideas on how to restore integrity and trust to the Court …
Three reforms to restore trust in the Supreme Court
On the anniversary of Dobbs, and the revelations about Alito
By Robert Reich
24 June 2023
Trust in the Supreme Court has hit an historic low. A Quinnipiac poll last week found that only 30 percent of registered voters approve of it.
Why don’t Americans trust the Supreme Court?
Because its opinions appear arbitrary, capricious, and partisan. Just look at Dobbs vs. Women’s Health Organization, which reversed Roe v. Wade a year ago today — and with which the majority of Americans disagree.
And because Supreme Court justices have been subject to bribery.
Last week, ProPublica detailed how billionaire Paul Singer, a GOP mega-donor, flew Justice Samuel Alito to Alaska on Singer’s private plane at no cost. The trip would have cost Alito an estimated $100,000, not including accommodation, food, and wine.
Alito never disclosed any of this, apparently violating federal financial disclosure rules applying to all federal officials, including Supreme Court Justices.And Alito failed to recuse himself from participating in a case of financial significance to Singer.
In April, ProPublica revealed that billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow gave Justice Clarence Thomas free luxury vacations and other gifts over a 20-year period, none of which was disclosed by Thomas.Crow also purchased two houses from Thomas and agreed to let Thomas’s mother live in one of them at no cost. Crow also paid the private school tuition for a student Thomas has described as a person “he is raising as a son.”
Thomas has failed to recuse himself from participating in cases of financial interest to Crow.
Orchestrating these bribes has been Leonard Leo, who last year received an unprecedented $1.6 billion donation to continue his work stacking the courts with ideologically conservative jurists. Leo played a pivotal role in the selection of the three Supreme Court Justices appointed by Trump.
What to do to restore trust of the highest court? Congress should enact three reforms:
- A code of ethics
Every other federal judge has to sign on to a code of ethics — except for Supreme Court justices. This makes no sense. Judges on the highest Court should be held to the highest ethical standards.
Congress should enact a code of ethics on Supreme Court justices. It would (1) ban justices from receiving personal gifts from political donors and anyone with business before the Court, (2) clarify when justices with conflicts of interest should remove themselves from cases, (3) prohibit justices from trading individual stocks, and (4) establish a formal process for investigating misconduct.
- Term limits
Article III of the Constitution says judges may “hold their office during good behavior,” but does not explicitly give Supreme Court Justices lifetime tenure on the highest court — even though that’s become the norm.
Term limits would prevent unelected justices from accumulating too much power over the course of their tenure — and would help defuse what has become an increasingly divisive confirmation process.
Congress should limit Supreme Court terms to 18-years, after which justices move to lower courts.
- Expand the Court
The Constitution does not limit the Supreme Court to nine justices. In fact, Congress has changed the size of the Court seven times. It should do so again in order to remedy the extreme partisanship of today’s Supreme Court.
Some may decry this as “court packing,” but the real court-packing occurred when Senate Republicans refused to even consider a Democratic nominee to the Supreme Court on the fake pretext that it was too close to the 2016 election, but then confirmed a Republican nominee just days before the 2020 election.
Rather than allow Republicans to continue exploiting the system, expanding the Supreme Court would actually unpack the court.
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Enacting these reforms won’t be easy. Big monied interests will fight to keep their control of the Supreme Court.
But these three reforms have significant support from the American people, who have lost trust in the court.
The Supreme Court derives its strength not from the use of force or political power, but from the trust of the people. With neither the sword nor the purse, trust is all it has.
Whew … the news cycle these days is nuts. Much of what’s found on the news is repetitive, but one must sift through it to find the nuggets. Then, when you find the nuggets, they just make you growl. Well-meaning friends suggest from time-to-time that I tune out for a few days or even … gasp … a week! But, I cannot. I am who I am, and I am very concerned these days about what is happening behind the scenes in Washington, what are they doing that is not being reported because the media is so wrapped up in the coronavirus and the stock market?
Michael Cohen … remember him? He was Trump’s personal attorney and ‘fixer’ who pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges: five counts of tax evasion, one count of making false statements to a financial institution, one count of willfully causing an unlawful corporate contribution, and one count of making an excessive campaign contribution at the request of a candidate (Trump). He’s currently serving a three-year sentence at a federal prison camp in Otisville, New York. A cushy sort of place, with better than average food and other amenities including bocce ball, horseshoes, handball and tennis.
Bernie Madoff … remember him? He is a former market maker, investment advisor and financier who is currently serving a federal prison sentence for offenses related to the largest Ponzi scheme in history. It is estimated that he bilked investors out of some $64.8 billion and his actions were in part responsible for the 2007-2008 financial crisis. He was sentenced in 2009 to 150 years in prison and is currently serving his sentence at the Federal Correctional Complex, Butner, North Carolina.
The attorneys for these two men are now pleading for their release from prison, saying it is only a matter of time before the coronavirus strikes the prisons and their clients, such pure, good people, should not be subjected to a life-threatening illness. It makes me wonder … the notorious #MeToo abuser of women, Harvey Weinstein was just sentenced to 23 years in prison, and just yesterday checked in at Elmira Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in upstate New York. I wonder if his attorney will plead for his release based on the possibility of coronavirus finding its way into the prison?
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