Sun 10/1 @ 9-10AM
Here’s a question whose answer becomes more obvious every day: “Does the U.S. Supreme Court Have Credibility?” And the answer is a resounding “NO!!!”
Just days ago we learned through a story by investigative reporters at ProPublica that Justice Clarence Thomas (who else?) was flown via private jet to donor summits hosted by the rightwing billionaire Koch Brothers for their big-money friends to speak to them a special guest. “Thomas wasn’t present for fundraising conversations” is a singularly lame excuse: Thomas was fully aware of their interests whether or not they were direct parties to a Supreme Court case and he surely knew he was being used as a donation enticement.
This is corruption on an epic scale. Sadly, the code of conduct for the federal judiciary, which attending this event violates, doesn’t apply to the Supreme Court. According to ProPublica, Retired federal judge John E. Jones III said that if he had gone to a Koch summit as a district court judge, “I’d have gotten a letter that would’ve commenced a disciplinary proceeding.”
Want to hear more about this conundrum of a situation. Join the community forum taking place at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Cleveland in Shaker Heights. The speaker are CWRU law professor Cassandra Burke Robertson and Cleveland State University assistant professor of law Shih-Chun Steven Chien.
They’ll address such questions as “Does the highest court in the country have the lowest ethical standards?” and talk about why the U.S. Supreme Court has so far refused to commit to the same standards required of lower courts and how that impacts citizen perception of the court.
The forum is free and open to all. Get more information on the UUCC forum series here. It will also be zoomed here.
uucleveland.org/community-forums/