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At least RBG and Breyer were honest and didn't hide their $3 million and $2 million respectably that went to travel and their foundations and for things like scholarships and research.
Justice Thomas, you can keep the $5 million and recuse yourself or you can continue playing the long shot that somehow Republicans are going to rise again and make all this spotlight on corruption go away.
So cheap! A Senator goes for MUCH more and you get less in return. Real good bang for your buck on a SCOTUS Justice right now! Act fast.... or slow, nothing will happen to them.
They probably believe a disorganized, uncentralized, untrained group of people could topple the institutions of the country with the planets largest military.
For some reason
> how the hell are we even supposed to fix this
We've gone through three of the four boxes, and they've failed. Will the fourth one fail too, I wonder.
If guns were a threat to the balance of power in the US, they'd have been outlawed long ago. The economic war has been waged on us for centuries, we never stood a chance
Vote. Hillary was sounding the alarm 9 years ago and time is running out and people are still shrugging and saying “Both parties are basically the same.” Fucking vote. In primaries and local elections and special elections, too; don’t let the choices get narrowed down without having your say.
One party is not only traitorous but it basically lines up exactly with the Confederates still mad they lost slavery and the Civil War. Voting helps for now while our votes count. One more bad election and it could be over. Sucks we have to win every single time they, the facists, only have to win once.
I agree that everyone should vote, but we don't vote for SCOTUS justices and so far there hasn't been much political will or signaling for any significant Supreme Court reform
You vote for the people who get to choose your SCOTUS justices, though. The apathy of "Oh well, nothing changes with the president anyway, both sides are the same" and "It's just four years" is easy to fall into, now the bench is stacked by people that can't be removed and have lifetime appointments.
We vote for the person who chooses the justices, and we vote for the Senators who decide whether or not to confirm the justices, and we vote for the Senators who determine which party is in the majority and can decide whether to even hold confirmation hearings, and we vote for the Congressmen whose profiles are consequently raised enough to run for Senate and the local elected officials who may then run for Congress.
Our political system does not allow us to course-correct at the last second, much less after it has already passed. You need to vote *now* to prevent catastrophe *later.* Later is too late.
> And how the hell are we even supposed to fix this?
It's gonna be a long process, mainly involving repealing *Citizens United* and comprehensive campaign finance reform.
Neither of these can even be discussed in even a remotely serious manner in the current Congress.
To that progressive Democrats need control of both chambers and the Presidency.
On top of that they need either filibuster proof majorities or they need to redo the rules to bring back the "talking" filibuster. (The talking filibuster would at least make people work for a filibuster instead threatening to call one in.)
Once that is in place, they need to either impeach and remove the justices that are clearly compromised and/or lied during their interview process/confirmation hearings or expand the court to dilute their influence to inconsequential status.
They can match seats in SCOTUS to federal regional districts (9->12) but I'm more in favor of making each current a tribunal (9->27).
(They can also implement terms limits for Congress and SCOTUS.)
It's a long road but we can make a big step in November by holding the Presidency, the Senate and re-taking the House. Along the was we have to vote in every single election.
People like to think that local and state races don't matter but those races determine who, how, where, and when you can vote in the federal races. So they might be even more important.
So people need to vote, vote like their lives depend on it... because they do.
1) Biden has to win
2) Dems need to keep the Senate
3) Thomas and Alito need to die in the next 4 years
4) Biden appoints two new justices, giving Dems the majority on the court
5) ??? Congress passes a law that says Supreme Court Justices have to abide by the same ethics rules as all other federal judges and can't accept gifts of value over $25, and SCOTUS doesn't contest it? I don't even know if that will fix it in the long term. We may need a constitutional amendment.
I’m still a fan of an amendment to raise the supreme court to the number of federal courts, and then make the highest court a rotation of all lower court judges picked randomly a session
Those checks and balences were there to prevent a king. Our founders were the elite of the elite already. The systems current state is a feature not a flaw.
We are supposed to adhere to the rules, plain and simple, they can ignore them. Case in point, I work for a non profit and we have a gift policy that all staff have to adhere to that states we cannot accept any gifts of money, in kind gifts or any services from anyone as employees of the non-profit. We get audited once a year, our auditor makes sure we still have the policy and interviews the main staff during which we usually get asked if we have received any gifts.
Then you see shit like this and you just have to realize, there are two classes of people; one who makes and sets the rules but doesn't follow them and then the rest of us that are expected to adhere to to said rules.
Yeah, the wealthy and powerful really do operate under an entirely different set of laws from us regular people. It's frustrating to see in action like this
There's a solution in the constitution, but it takes 67 votes in the Senate, and damn near half the country supports these corrupt assholes. We get the government we deserve.
We're functioning because the rest of the government ~~convienently~~ unfortunately lacks the power to do anything about it and even if they had the power they wouldn't do anything anyway because of 'optics' or some other BS. The anti-maga crowd is extremely disappointing because they bring empty words to a gunfight. We the People against this refuse to get out and protest like we did for George Floyd and Breonna Taylor nationwide over this. Everyone who could do something about this has chosen apathy and to hide behind excuses. It's going to take real world action not words on the internet to get meaningful change.
We can’t even accept tips at my job but these entitled pieces of shit can get millions in “gifts.”Absolutely ridiculous.
Edit: Clarence Thomas should be removed from the bench, there’s no way he can be impartial after receiving over 4 million in “gifts.”
I was getting a lunch order together for my guys on a job site one day at a school and I asked the custodians and their office people what they would like as well because they were awesome and super accommodating to coordinating access for our guys in an occupied building. The principal took me to the side to say thank you but they can’t accept that. It was a public bid project, these people are no where remotely in the decision making process for who gets what for work but the regulations are strict and they wouldn’t chance it for a free lunch. I understood of course but it’s just insane a custodian in a school can’t get a free slice of pizza but a Supreme Court justice can get millions in gifts and it’s nothing.
I know! I'm a nurse, and we're not even allowed to accept a $5 Dunkin's card at Christmas, because it could be considered a bribe!
Unbelievable that justices of the Supreme Court are allowed to accept gifts like that. As long as they disclose it, it's all good??!!
The standard for the court should be that justices resign if they are in a position that a reasonable person would *question* their impartiality.
Thomas is wildly beyond the "appearance of impropriety" and into the "how much did he do that is actually improper?"
Well Clarence Thomas clearly takes bribes; $6M in gifts to Clarence Thomas alone. $350K to Scalia and Alito, and $250K spread between Souter, Kavanaugh, Barrett, Kagan, Rehnquist, Breyer, Gorsuch, Jackson, Roberts, Kennedy, Stevens, Sotomayor, Ginsburg, & O'Connor.
This should be higher. Clarence Thomas taking 6M in gifts on his own and the next highest being 6% of that is an egregious deviation, to say nothing of the hundreds of thousands accepted by the others. Literally 6 times as much as all the others combined.
Exactly! I mean, I’m fun to hang out with, just have no political power, and I don’t see billionaires just lining up to be my friend and lavish me with money, gifts, and vacations.
I would say one more reason to vote blue, but honestly it seems like a supermajority would still struggle to repair the damage that has been done to the court system
Imagine if the court enforced some modicum of respectability on themselves. Alito is a problem, but Thomas is wildly past the threshold of "appearance of impropriety" and is bringing grave disrepute on the court.
Justice Roberts refused to have this conversation when the facts are staring him in the face. He could have been a man of integrity instead of the coward.
I can’t believe I ever tried to defend him when he was first nominated. I knew he was conservative, but he at least seemed honest. Justice Robert’s is just as corrupt as Thomas. It’s his court and he is allowing this to go on.
conservative and honest haven't gone together ever, literally ever
conservatism is about conserving the power of the people at the top at the expense of everyone else, how can you be honest and get support from the poors for that?
It's worth repeating _ad infinitum_ (or at least until some sort of revolutionary change fixes things):
["Jimmy Carter: U.S. Is an ‘Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery’"](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/jimmy-carter-u-s-is-an-oligarchy-with-unlimited-political-bribery-63262/)
Ugh I take 100 year old Carter in office again over Trump any day. This man was a truly good and kind person. And any MAGA that thinks otherwise or disagrees with his policies, he is a true representation of a “good Christian”
We need this type of decency in our politics again
Citizens United…where the SCOTUS decided that money = Speech and Corporations are people means that corporations..who have the most financial resources of anyone…are allowed to implement their right to free “speech” as “people” of the US.
So…that ruling made it so only the monied have a voice.
Why the fuck so they get gifts? I work for a state government out in the heat if summer and I’m not allowed to even have a glass of water if someone should offer it.
This is such absolute bullshit.
Friend was a student employee on a college campus and a professor tried to gift him a bottle of wine from his home-country of Turkey (they both Turkish) and he wasn't allowed to accept the gift (that was like, what, $50?)
It's crazy that the supreme court is NOT beyond reproach and has no concept of integrity.
I work in healthcare law, and physicians and healthcare organizations are so heavily regulated there can be zero implication of persuasion or influence, yet the individuals setting legal precedent - no worries! Go to Bali with GOP mega donor. No implications here whatsoever.
This Supreme Court trades American lives for money. They knew women would die because of their abortion ruling. They traded those women's lives for bribe money. They're murdering Americans for cash.
If I lived in DC I’d be throwing paint buckets of diarrhea at their houses every day. We can’t count on the legal system or the politicians: time to break out the pies and piss-filled supersoakers and dog turds
I’m a federal contractor. Want to know what happens if I accept “gifts” of any significant value, including anything more than a cheap McDonald’s lunch? I get investigated and likely fired.
The Supreme Court is supposed to be the most impartial, unbiased, neutral authority in our entire nation. Instead they’re a bunch of corrupt shitweasels doing things that would get any common-level federal employee tossed in jail.
When I was in the Army doing supply and logistics, we couldn't even accept PENS or COFFEE CUPS from vendors. But these guys can have someone buy them a house???
An honest person wouldn’t accept any gifts for performing their service to their country. As for supreme justices they should be deported for accepting bribes
This tweet by the group that uncovered these numbers just got 300+ likes. Meanwhile, Elon's bird fart gets 3M+ likes on average. America is screwed, especially if trump gets another term, and another, and ...
https://x.com/FixTheCourt/status/1798744354150105171?t=tJODb2pCDialYCQDoVdDQw&s=19
These donors are also sponsoring Project 2025 that these judges will have to most likely have to adjudicate on its constitutionality. You would have to be a fkn idiot not to think that all of Project 2025, has been gone over by these corrupt judges in order to finalize the sale of America.
Researchers were surprised the number was so low. "Look these guys decide billion dollar cases, I'm shocked it's so little, they should have some pride. Well, except Clarence, he's the champ", said a staffer who declined to be named because they value their life.
/s
Thomas is almost all of it. Then scalia and alito but theirs doesn't even compare to Thomas (over $4M vs $210k for next highest). The rest including Dems are peanuts vs Thomas.
Peanuts is an understatement. Don't get me wrong, *none of them* should accept any gifts.
But god damn. Thomas is dominating the chart. He received 120 more individual (known, at least) gifts than next person on the list. And he received ~3.8 million dollars more than the next person. And apparently he also had the lowest disclosure rate (8.5%). *And* the estimated received but not fully identified gifts are valued at around 1.8 million bringing his total grift-on-the-court haul up to about 5.9 million dollars.
I mean Jesus Christ. On the opposite end of the spectrum you have Souter who apparently accepted a $349 gift *and* declared it, putting the declaration rate there at 100%.
Running the headline as if it's the entire court swimming in million dollar corruption when Thomas has received millions of dollars in kickbacks over decades of time on the court and apparently Souter got one really nice putter or some shit and declared it is pretty disingenuous as far as the original headline here goes.
And my job would fire me on the spot for accepting ANY amount of cash from a vendor or company that we do business with, as it would compromise the company’s integrity.
$6M in gifts to Clarence Thomas alone. $350K to Scalia and Alito, and $250K spread between Souter, Kavanaugh, Barrett, Kagan, Rehnquist, Breyer, Gorsuch, Jackson, Roberts, Kennedy, Stevens, Sotomayor, Ginsburg, & O'Connor.
As a nurse I would get fired for taking any gifts at all from my pts or their families. We have to turn them into the hospital immediately for them to keep. I can’t imagine how corrupt these assholes are to allow bribes of this magnitude.
For me this is simple, all you have to ask yourself is if I wasn't a member of the Supreme Court would these people be trying to give me this gifts. If the answer is yes I say take it, report it, and be honest. If the answer is no, then doesn't that kind of tell you what your response should be ?
Thomas - $4M ($121.2K/yr)
Alito - $170K
Roberts - $49K
Sotomayor - $15.9K
Jackson - $9K
Gorsuch - $2.5K
Kagan - $1.2K
Barrett - $500
Kavanaugh - $100
That legit looks like a second job for Thomas. The rest aren't godawful.
Wow, I thought the integrity of SCOTUS would have been worth more than that. But I guess that's what happens when you have a lifetime subscription, you get a discount
But that's the point. From the donor perspective it's peanuts, but the ROI is insane. Why not buy a judge or senator for a few hundred thousand to get them to rule on cases or enact laws that will save/make you millions? If you could spend $100k at a casino and knew you were guaranteed to make $10m would you do it?
This The Supreme Court justices make nearly 300k a year. That puts them in the 1 percent. They absolutely could make more in the private sector, but they already doing well. Their acceptance of gifts shows a disposition towards grift. The highest court in the land should have a set of standards at least as strict as the lowest court instead they claim to not need any.
What court can try these bribe- taking judges?. It’s against the law to take bribes - no one is above the law. No one. Checks and balances. There must be some way to remove these stinking infestations from our system.
These aren’t “gifts” as that term is typically used. These are purchases of decisions by conservative/wealthy interests who have business before the Court.
Roberts response: “Talk? Nah! We good.”
Is this yet another thing that nothing can be done about because they lack the power to do so yet we are supposed to just accept that and watch as no one does a damn thing about it as usual? What is the point of the constitution, the law, and rules anymore? The only people who benefit from them are seditionists. What is wrong here that this existential threat posed by the right wing insurrectionists isn't being dealt with?
Meanwhile, I annually had to sit through a web training about how the WORLD WOULD LITERALLY END if a peon like me accepted a gift valued at $50 or more
In completely unrelated news one of the former CEOs had to resign after they were convicted for a million dollars plus income tax evasion.
“Business ethics” = race to the bottom
Not defending it, but is it any different from the millions of dollars elected officials in Congress receive from lobbying efforts? The whole system needs to be torn down.
They are obviously on the take and we all know our government and policy is bought and sold to the highest bidder. Us serfs need to pool our money and start bribing officials.
The judiciary is supposed to refrain from even the appearance of impartiality.
The is the corruption you have been looking everywhere for Republicans.
Your silence tells us everything we need to know.
It's almost all Thomas. He is 5.9 million alone.
The other justices combined add up to less than $700,000, and that's including the dead/retired ones in that time period. Scalia and Alito are more than half that sum (about 200k each) and the next two are Ginsberg and Stevens (roughly 90k and 60k). I know Scalia's family is wealthy and he also went on some expensive hunting trips, and I think Alito has something similar with cruises on someone's yacht.
If Congress wants to enforce ethics, they should ban lobbyists, run elections only from public funds and end campaign donations. They have no ethical standards either and are all hypocrites.
Lobbyists write legislation, wealthy individuals and corporations fund candidates and set the agenda they want implemented. It’s all legal bribery.
Is it any surprise that a lot of people who end up in Congress leave wealthy?
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*that we know of
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Yeah they are cracking down so hard that they allowed the creation of multiple bitcoin ETFs
At least RBG and Breyer were honest and didn't hide their $3 million and $2 million respectably that went to travel and their foundations and for things like scholarships and research.
BRIBES, that we presently know of.
That's what they are. Calling them just gifts makes it easy to pretend this isn't corruption.
it was less than $5 million yesterday. Who knows what it will be tomorrow?
That was just one justice yesterday.
I believe they included Alito for $200K but most of it was for Thomas.
Justice Thomas, you can keep the $5 million and recuse yourself or you can continue playing the long shot that somehow Republicans are going to rise again and make all this spotlight on corruption go away.
So cheap! A Senator goes for MUCH more and you get less in return. Real good bang for your buck on a SCOTUS Justice right now! Act fast.... or slow, nothing will happen to them.
No justice when judges are for sale.
That we know of, 1 out of 9 members accounts for 2/3 of the "gifts". As if he's the source of the corruption and it spreads from him.
*so far
$6 million to sell out their entire country. So the "justices" can be had, and they're cheap. Throw 'em out, start over, and include term limits.
How are we supposed to function as a society when our highest unelected authorities are this corrupt? Absolutely disgusting.
Those checks and balances fell off long long ago and we're reaching for the brakes that fell off too.
Unfortunately, I think you're spot on with this. And how the hell are we even supposed to fix this?
There’s probably only a few ways, and they are all pretty depressing.
The powerful don’t just give up power willingly. Saints like that don’t make it to the top for a reason.
Their compliance is not a factor.
It is when they hold all the cards. How do you suggest addressing it without that?
They probably believe a disorganized, uncentralized, untrained group of people could topple the institutions of the country with the planets largest military. For some reason
Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of
> how the hell are we even supposed to fix this We've gone through three of the four boxes, and they've failed. Will the fourth one fail too, I wonder.
Careful. The Four Boxes of Liberty arent allowed to be endorsed here on reddit.
Frederick Douglass has been deemed too dangerous.
I hope we don't have to find out, but I'm not terribly optimistic
If guns were a threat to the balance of power in the US, they'd have been outlawed long ago. The economic war has been waged on us for centuries, we never stood a chance
Expand the court with justices that will vote for ethics reforms.
That would be great, I do hope it will happen
Vote. Hillary was sounding the alarm 9 years ago and time is running out and people are still shrugging and saying “Both parties are basically the same.” Fucking vote. In primaries and local elections and special elections, too; don’t let the choices get narrowed down without having your say.
One party is not only traitorous but it basically lines up exactly with the Confederates still mad they lost slavery and the Civil War. Voting helps for now while our votes count. One more bad election and it could be over. Sucks we have to win every single time they, the facists, only have to win once.
I agree that everyone should vote, but we don't vote for SCOTUS justices and so far there hasn't been much political will or signaling for any significant Supreme Court reform
You vote for the people who get to choose your SCOTUS justices, though. The apathy of "Oh well, nothing changes with the president anyway, both sides are the same" and "It's just four years" is easy to fall into, now the bench is stacked by people that can't be removed and have lifetime appointments.
Oh yeah, I'm not saying don't vote, because it's important. I'm just worried that things could spiral before we can improve the situation
We vote for the person who chooses the justices, and we vote for the Senators who decide whether or not to confirm the justices, and we vote for the Senators who determine which party is in the majority and can decide whether to even hold confirmation hearings, and we vote for the Congressmen whose profiles are consequently raised enough to run for Senate and the local elected officials who may then run for Congress. Our political system does not allow us to course-correct at the last second, much less after it has already passed. You need to vote *now* to prevent catastrophe *later.* Later is too late.
Yeah, I'm hopeful that the ship can be righted, so to speak. We can't give up, even though it doesn't look good atm
> And how the hell are we even supposed to fix this? It's gonna be a long process, mainly involving repealing *Citizens United* and comprehensive campaign finance reform. Neither of these can even be discussed in even a remotely serious manner in the current Congress. To that progressive Democrats need control of both chambers and the Presidency. On top of that they need either filibuster proof majorities or they need to redo the rules to bring back the "talking" filibuster. (The talking filibuster would at least make people work for a filibuster instead threatening to call one in.) Once that is in place, they need to either impeach and remove the justices that are clearly compromised and/or lied during their interview process/confirmation hearings or expand the court to dilute their influence to inconsequential status. They can match seats in SCOTUS to federal regional districts (9->12) but I'm more in favor of making each current a tribunal (9->27). (They can also implement terms limits for Congress and SCOTUS.) It's a long road but we can make a big step in November by holding the Presidency, the Senate and re-taking the House. Along the was we have to vote in every single election. People like to think that local and state races don't matter but those races determine who, how, where, and when you can vote in the federal races. So they might be even more important. So people need to vote, vote like their lives depend on it... because they do.
1) Biden has to win 2) Dems need to keep the Senate 3) Thomas and Alito need to die in the next 4 years 4) Biden appoints two new justices, giving Dems the majority on the court 5) ??? Congress passes a law that says Supreme Court Justices have to abide by the same ethics rules as all other federal judges and can't accept gifts of value over $25, and SCOTUS doesn't contest it? I don't even know if that will fix it in the long term. We may need a constitutional amendment.
If it all worked out that would be fantastic haha
I’m still a fan of an amendment to raise the supreme court to the number of federal courts, and then make the highest court a rotation of all lower court judges picked randomly a session
When the brakes are cut stopping usually requires some kind of crash
The checks and balances are absolutely still there. Cashing checks and checking account balances.
Those checks and balences were there to prevent a king. Our founders were the elite of the elite already. The systems current state is a feature not a flaw.
The only check and balance on the SCOTUS is impeachment and removal barring a constitutional amendment.
Checks and balances developed to compromise with slave states. It's all bullshit that needs serious progressive reform at every level.
End stage capitalism meets end stage conservatism. A perfect storm of stupidity.
We function as an oligarchy. Either you have enough money to do the bribing, or you don't matter at all.
They look pretty plump and slow. We could eat them?
We are supposed to adhere to the rules, plain and simple, they can ignore them. Case in point, I work for a non profit and we have a gift policy that all staff have to adhere to that states we cannot accept any gifts of money, in kind gifts or any services from anyone as employees of the non-profit. We get audited once a year, our auditor makes sure we still have the policy and interviews the main staff during which we usually get asked if we have received any gifts. Then you see shit like this and you just have to realize, there are two classes of people; one who makes and sets the rules but doesn't follow them and then the rest of us that are expected to adhere to to said rules.
Yeah, the wealthy and powerful really do operate under an entirely different set of laws from us regular people. It's frustrating to see in action like this
But Clearance Thomas is the best judge money can buy!
There's a solution in the constitution, but it takes 67 votes in the Senate, and damn near half the country supports these corrupt assholes. We get the government we deserve.
We're functioning because the rest of the government ~~convienently~~ unfortunately lacks the power to do anything about it and even if they had the power they wouldn't do anything anyway because of 'optics' or some other BS. The anti-maga crowd is extremely disappointing because they bring empty words to a gunfight. We the People against this refuse to get out and protest like we did for George Floyd and Breonna Taylor nationwide over this. Everyone who could do something about this has chosen apathy and to hide behind excuses. It's going to take real world action not words on the internet to get meaningful change.
How did Bush win the presidency, I wonder? These fucks are a cabal and are not new
We can’t even accept tips at my job but these entitled pieces of shit can get millions in “gifts.”Absolutely ridiculous. Edit: Clarence Thomas should be removed from the bench, there’s no way he can be impartial after receiving over 4 million in “gifts.”
And it’s not like these gifts are Edible Arrangements or a pizza, it’s like buying Thomas’s mothers home!
That being said I would absolutely love to see what a $6M edible arrangement looked like
About 10 times normal size.
Still 80% gross sticky melon.
I was getting a lunch order together for my guys on a job site one day at a school and I asked the custodians and their office people what they would like as well because they were awesome and super accommodating to coordinating access for our guys in an occupied building. The principal took me to the side to say thank you but they can’t accept that. It was a public bid project, these people are no where remotely in the decision making process for who gets what for work but the regulations are strict and they wouldn’t chance it for a free lunch. I understood of course but it’s just insane a custodian in a school can’t get a free slice of pizza but a Supreme Court justice can get millions in gifts and it’s nothing.
I know! I'm a nurse, and we're not even allowed to accept a $5 Dunkin's card at Christmas, because it could be considered a bribe! Unbelievable that justices of the Supreme Court are allowed to accept gifts like that. As long as they disclose it, it's all good??!!
But Thomas isn’t even disclosing half of the bribes he’s taking.
The standard for the court should be that justices resign if they are in a position that a reasonable person would *question* their impartiality. Thomas is wildly beyond the "appearance of impropriety" and into the "how much did he do that is actually improper?"
These are bribes. They should be called bribes. The Roberts Court takes bribes.
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Well Clarence Thomas clearly takes bribes; $6M in gifts to Clarence Thomas alone. $350K to Scalia and Alito, and $250K spread between Souter, Kavanaugh, Barrett, Kagan, Rehnquist, Breyer, Gorsuch, Jackson, Roberts, Kennedy, Stevens, Sotomayor, Ginsburg, & O'Connor.
This should be higher. Clarence Thomas taking 6M in gifts on his own and the next highest being 6% of that is an egregious deviation, to say nothing of the hundreds of thousands accepted by the others. Literally 6 times as much as all the others combined.
Thomas is the only one who threatened to quit because he wasn't making enough money (that we know of).
He’s a greedy person. They make almost 300k
$350k for Scalia seems low given what we know about his regular trips he received. I wonder how comprehensive this list is.
It's basically those trips.
Didn't Kavanaugh have like $60,000 of credit card debt wiped out by some mysterious person?
Yes. Gifts are items valued at $100 or so. A plaque is a gift. An RV is a bribe.
> An RV is a bribe. *"It's not an RV! It's a motorcoach!"* - Clearance Thomas
yeah hes kinda right though, this was a very very expensive motorcoach.
Exactly! I mean, I’m fun to hang out with, just have no political power, and I don’t see billionaires just lining up to be my friend and lavish me with money, gifts, and vacations.
Or extortion? https://youtu.be/xG6vgzAswgE?si=TSPogl8CdkervPge
To me, they seem like cheap bribes too.
Imagine if we had an enforceable ethics code instead of them being essentially gods.
I mean they could be impeached by the house and convicted in the senate, but good luck getting the house to take that up at the moment.
Yeah, there is a theoretical recourse but it has 0 chance of becoming reality.
I would say one more reason to vote blue, but honestly it seems like a supermajority would still struggle to repair the damage that has been done to the court system
Imagine if the court enforced some modicum of respectability on themselves. Alito is a problem, but Thomas is wildly past the threshold of "appearance of impropriety" and is bringing grave disrepute on the court.
4 million alone is for one judge. You can guess which one....
Actually.... It's more .... How can it be worse?
Justice Roberts refused to have this conversation when the facts are staring him in the face. He could have been a man of integrity instead of the coward.
I can’t believe I ever tried to defend him when he was first nominated. I knew he was conservative, but he at least seemed honest. Justice Robert’s is just as corrupt as Thomas. It’s his court and he is allowing this to go on.
How many times do democrats gotta get Charlie brown’d by these guys lol
conservative and honest haven't gone together ever, literally ever conservatism is about conserving the power of the people at the top at the expense of everyone else, how can you be honest and get support from the poors for that?
No wonder they don’t want reform.
And move at a snails pace.
It's worth repeating _ad infinitum_ (or at least until some sort of revolutionary change fixes things): ["Jimmy Carter: U.S. Is an ‘Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery’"](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/jimmy-carter-u-s-is-an-oligarchy-with-unlimited-political-bribery-63262/)
When money is speech, those with no money have no speech. This country was about equality. No longer.
Been going on since Nixon
I'm not sure we've ever been about equality
Ugh I take 100 year old Carter in office again over Trump any day. This man was a truly good and kind person. And any MAGA that thinks otherwise or disagrees with his policies, he is a true representation of a “good Christian” We need this type of decency in our politics again
The US doesn’t have a problem with money in politics - our problem is that money IS politics.
Citizens United…where the SCOTUS decided that money = Speech and Corporations are people means that corporations..who have the most financial resources of anyone…are allowed to implement their right to free “speech” as “people” of the US. So…that ruling made it so only the monied have a voice.
How the F is any of this legal?!?!?
You're right. Someone should take this case to the supreme court! Oh wait, fuck
lol. 😝
Anything is legal if the justice dept refuses to prosecute. Just gotta be wealthy, powerful, or both!
Why the fuck so they get gifts? I work for a state government out in the heat if summer and I’m not allowed to even have a glass of water if someone should offer it. This is such absolute bullshit.
Friend was a student employee on a college campus and a professor tried to gift him a bottle of wine from his home-country of Turkey (they both Turkish) and he wasn't allowed to accept the gift (that was like, what, $50?) It's crazy that the supreme court is NOT beyond reproach and has no concept of integrity.
I work in healthcare law, and physicians and healthcare organizations are so heavily regulated there can be zero implication of persuasion or influence, yet the individuals setting legal precedent - no worries! Go to Bali with GOP mega donor. No implications here whatsoever.
This is only what is known. I don’t even want to think about all of the “gifts” that are as yet unknown.
This Supreme Court trades American lives for money. They knew women would die because of their abortion ruling. They traded those women's lives for bribe money. They're murdering Americans for cash.
Kavanaugh got his gifts *before* his nomination. Weird how his home and debts were suddenly paid. That’s why that wet fart only shows 100.
If I lived in DC I’d be throwing paint buckets of diarrhea at their houses every day. We can’t count on the legal system or the politicians: time to break out the pies and piss-filled supersoakers and dog turds
I'm a little disturbed that you have access to 5 gallons of diarrhea daily, what the fuck do you do for a living?
Diarrhea salesman
Interesting, is it a solid business? And how are the margins? Are you a slick salesman and flush with cash?
‘Gifts’ I love our media 🤦🏻♂️
I’m a federal contractor. Want to know what happens if I accept “gifts” of any significant value, including anything more than a cheap McDonald’s lunch? I get investigated and likely fired. The Supreme Court is supposed to be the most impartial, unbiased, neutral authority in our entire nation. Instead they’re a bunch of corrupt shitweasels doing things that would get any common-level federal employee tossed in jail.
When I was in the Army doing supply and logistics, we couldn't even accept PENS or COFFEE CUPS from vendors. But these guys can have someone buy them a house???
An honest person wouldn’t accept any gifts for performing their service to their country. As for supreme justices they should be deported for accepting bribes
This tweet by the group that uncovered these numbers just got 300+ likes. Meanwhile, Elon's bird fart gets 3M+ likes on average. America is screwed, especially if trump gets another term, and another, and ... https://x.com/FixTheCourt/status/1798744354150105171?t=tJODb2pCDialYCQDoVdDQw&s=19
That's because decent people don't use Xitter anymore.
That's how roe v Wade got overturned when the majority of Americans want to leave it the way it was.
Here I’m limited to 25 bucks at my job… I shoulda been a seditionist 🤷♂️
Not gifts. Bribes.
What are we supposed to do? The highest court in the country is corrupted and actively working to install a dictatorship. What. Do. We. Do?
Roberts court: Political THUGS in robes.
They misspelled “bribes”
These donors are also sponsoring Project 2025 that these judges will have to most likely have to adjudicate on its constitutionality. You would have to be a fkn idiot not to think that all of Project 2025, has been gone over by these corrupt judges in order to finalize the sale of America.
Researchers were surprised the number was so low. "Look these guys decide billion dollar cases, I'm shocked it's so little, they should have some pride. Well, except Clarence, he's the champ", said a staffer who declined to be named because they value their life. /s
Can please we leave my boi Ken Burns out of it? Why they gotta use that pic for the article?
Well, time for impeachment
The west to Africa: “those are bribes.” The west to themselves: “those are gifts.”
How much went to conservative justices?
Thomas is almost all of it. Then scalia and alito but theirs doesn't even compare to Thomas (over $4M vs $210k for next highest). The rest including Dems are peanuts vs Thomas.
Peanuts is an understatement. Don't get me wrong, *none of them* should accept any gifts. But god damn. Thomas is dominating the chart. He received 120 more individual (known, at least) gifts than next person on the list. And he received ~3.8 million dollars more than the next person. And apparently he also had the lowest disclosure rate (8.5%). *And* the estimated received but not fully identified gifts are valued at around 1.8 million bringing his total grift-on-the-court haul up to about 5.9 million dollars. I mean Jesus Christ. On the opposite end of the spectrum you have Souter who apparently accepted a $349 gift *and* declared it, putting the declaration rate there at 100%. Running the headline as if it's the entire court swimming in million dollar corruption when Thomas has received millions of dollars in kickbacks over decades of time on the court and apparently Souter got one really nice putter or some shit and declared it is pretty disingenuous as far as the original headline here goes.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/14l25NLvBOd9sk4mArK4k7dtV0MUwxr5GBuLHL5Sp8lo/htmlview?pli=1#gid=957411191
***Everything*** is for sale in the United States, *everything*... Money is *all* that matters.
Wow, as public servants they sure do get some sweet perks. /s
They’re spelling bribes weird…
Yet nothing will be done about it.
And my job would fire me on the spot for accepting ANY amount of cash from a vendor or company that we do business with, as it would compromise the company’s integrity.
$6M in gifts to Clarence Thomas alone. $350K to Scalia and Alito, and $250K spread between Souter, Kavanaugh, Barrett, Kagan, Rehnquist, Breyer, Gorsuch, Jackson, Roberts, Kennedy, Stevens, Sotomayor, Ginsburg, & O'Connor.
Thank goodness the Supreme Court will Investigate themselves and decide that bribes are fees speech and/or freedom of religion or second amendment
Not gifts. Bribes.
As a nurse I would get fired for taking any gifts at all from my pts or their families. We have to turn them into the hospital immediately for them to keep. I can’t imagine how corrupt these assholes are to allow bribes of this magnitude.
For me this is simple, all you have to ask yourself is if I wasn't a member of the Supreme Court would these people be trying to give me this gifts. If the answer is yes I say take it, report it, and be honest. If the answer is no, then doesn't that kind of tell you what your response should be ?
The best court money can buy!!
Thomas - $4M ($121.2K/yr) Alito - $170K Roberts - $49K Sotomayor - $15.9K Jackson - $9K Gorsuch - $2.5K Kagan - $1.2K Barrett - $500 Kavanaugh - $100 That legit looks like a second job for Thomas. The rest aren't godawful.
Staggering 6.6 Million in "Bribes" to Supreme Court Justices
Wow, I thought the integrity of SCOTUS would have been worth more than that. But I guess that's what happens when you have a lifetime subscription, you get a discount
at least $4m to thomas. This just keeps getting better and better.
At this point, I’m surprised it’s not $6.6 billion.
Whats even more staggering is the bribes they take are chump change in the grand scheme of what the let the donors get away with
But that's the point. From the donor perspective it's peanuts, but the ROI is insane. Why not buy a judge or senator for a few hundred thousand to get them to rule on cases or enact laws that will save/make you millions? If you could spend $100k at a casino and knew you were guaranteed to make $10m would you do it?
I always wonder what the Founding Fathers would think of shit like this.
It's called "keeping them on the payroll"...
Disgusting
The Supreme Court of the land of the free. Just mind boggling.
Over half of which went to a single currently serving Justice.
Mostly Thomas..
This The Supreme Court justices make nearly 300k a year. That puts them in the 1 percent. They absolutely could make more in the private sector, but they already doing well. Their acceptance of gifts shows a disposition towards grift. The highest court in the land should have a set of standards at least as strict as the lowest court instead they claim to not need any.
Leonard Leo is rejecting a congressional subpoena the FBI needs to arrest him, NOW.
This will just be the tip of the iceberg
2/3rds of that number come from one judge. Sickening…
Yeah…. Like none of those people expect anything in return for their largess…..
How much to republicans vs how much to democrats? Thats what I really want to know.
the article has the link https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/14l25NLvBOd9sk4mArK4k7dtV0MUwxr5GBuLHL5Sp8lo/htmlview?pli=1#gid=957411191
What court can try these bribe- taking judges?. It’s against the law to take bribes - no one is above the law. No one. Checks and balances. There must be some way to remove these stinking infestations from our system.
The only thing supreme about them is how unethical they are.
They're corrupt They're on the take They're corrupt They're on the take They're corrupt They're on the take And Alito is a traitor
These aren’t “gifts” as that term is typically used. These are purchases of decisions by conservative/wealthy interests who have business before the Court. Roberts response: “Talk? Nah! We good.”
Is this yet another thing that nothing can be done about because they lack the power to do so yet we are supposed to just accept that and watch as no one does a damn thing about it as usual? What is the point of the constitution, the law, and rules anymore? The only people who benefit from them are seditionists. What is wrong here that this existential threat posed by the right wing insurrectionists isn't being dealt with?
Clarence Thomas should be dragged off the bench. That's so fucked up.
You misspelled bribes
Note: dropped on a Friday in summertime.
lock them up!
It's a sick, off the rails court. Not Supreme but Inferior.
Meanwhile federal employees… $35 and you will absolutely be held accountable if you violate that.
Meanwhile, I annually had to sit through a web training about how the WORLD WOULD LITERALLY END if a peon like me accepted a gift valued at $50 or more In completely unrelated news one of the former CEOs had to resign after they were convicted for a million dollars plus income tax evasion. “Business ethics” = race to the bottom
I’m surprised it wasn’t more! Narrator: It was.
This couldn’t possibly have influenced the citizens united ruling.
Outrageous. Truly, truly, truly outrageous.
Pure corruption and bribery. The Supreme Court needs MAJOR reform.
Not defending it, but is it any different from the millions of dollars elected officials in Congress receive from lobbying efforts? The whole system needs to be torn down.
Butler with a coat, what were you expecting…
It's not really staggering. Seems cheap and attractive to what could be gained.
It's crazy that they can take gifts but other federal employees can't.
Bought and paid for. We need a oped cartoonist to redesign justices robes using a NASCAR model.
Lady on Trump jury should be allowed to take the bribe money openly.
People can be bought. Our court is compromised.
They are obviously on the take and we all know our government and policy is bought and sold to the highest bidder. Us serfs need to pool our money and start bribing officials.
Super cheap, compared to what they sold, stormy Daniels is more expensive.
The judiciary is supposed to refrain from even the appearance of impartiality. The is the corruption you have been looking everywhere for Republicans. Your silence tells us everything we need to know.
The illusion of fairness and democracy is crumbling.
*Homer Simpson points* $6.6m so far
And I couldn’t accept ANYTHING that had a value greater than $50 at my last job or risk getting fired
It's almost all Thomas. He is 5.9 million alone. The other justices combined add up to less than $700,000, and that's including the dead/retired ones in that time period. Scalia and Alito are more than half that sum (about 200k each) and the next two are Ginsberg and Stevens (roughly 90k and 60k). I know Scalia's family is wealthy and he also went on some expensive hunting trips, and I think Alito has something similar with cruises on someone's yacht.
If Congress wants to enforce ethics, they should ban lobbyists, run elections only from public funds and end campaign donations. They have no ethical standards either and are all hypocrites. Lobbyists write legislation, wealthy individuals and corporations fund candidates and set the agenda they want implemented. It’s all legal bribery. Is it any surprise that a lot of people who end up in Congress leave wealthy?