Octopus Overlords

The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to take up a case that could threaten the existence of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and potentially the status of numerous other federal agencies, including the Federal Reserve.

A panel of three Trump appointees on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last fall that the agency's funding is unconstitutional because the CFPB gets its money from the Federal Reserve, which in turn is funded by bank fees.

Zaxxon wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 8:45 am Whee! I'm sure this is all totally above-board.

In late June 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef.

If Thomas had chartered the plane and the 162-foot yacht himself, the total cost of the trip could have exceeded $500,000. Fortunately for him, that wasn’t necessary: He was on vacation with real estate magnate and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, who owned the jet — and the yacht, too.

For more than two decades, Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from the Dallas businessman without disclosing them, documents and interviews show. A public servant who has a salary of $285,000, he has vacationed on Crow’s superyacht around the globe. He flies on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet. He has gone with Crow to the Bohemian Grove, the exclusive California all-male retreat, and to Crow’s sprawling ranch in East Texas. And Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.

The extent and frequency of Crow’s apparent gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Grifman wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 9:26 am It will never happen but he should be impeached for this, and I don’t say that lightly. It’s a breach of ethics and not reporting it was illegal.

malchior wrote:It sure wasn't a good look when Kavanaugh was at X-Mas parties attended by MAGA luminaries such as Erik Prince. The judiciary is turning into a hot mess rapidly and Roberts seems to be frozen in the headlights. I can't imagine he loves this yet he is essentially powerless to do anything about it. He is likely very hesitant to impose an ethics code since he can't enforce it in any meaningful way.

Alefroth wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 1:54 pm He'll never be impeached. Biden needs to expand the SC to make his vote meaningless.

malchior wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 5:18 pm

Grifman wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 4:56 pm

Alefroth wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 1:54 pm He'll never be impeached. Biden needs to expand the SC to make his vote meaningless.

And exactly how would he do this?

Alefroth wrote:

Grifman wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 4:56 pm

Alefroth wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 1:54 pm He'll never be impeached. Biden needs to expand the SC to make his vote meaningless.

And exactly how would he do this?

I guess he can't. We missed our chance.

Zaxxon wrote: Fri Apr 07, 2023 12:47 pm $500k in personal hospitality seems to strain the definition of the term.

malchior wrote: Fri Apr 07, 2023 12:49 pm

Zaxxon wrote: Fri Apr 07, 2023 12:47 pm $500k in personal hospitality seems to strain the definition of the term.

You can't put a dollar value on personal hospitality. It was just kindness from a billionaire who just so happens to be affiliated with several deep-pocketed conservative legal advocacy groups and struck up the friendship after he was appointed to the top court in the land. All trifles of coincidence!

malchior wrote: Fri Apr 07, 2023 12:49 pm

Zaxxon wrote: Fri Apr 07, 2023 12:47 pm $500k in personal hospitality seems to strain the definition of the term.

You can't put a dollar value on personal hospitality. It was just kindness from a billionaire who just so happens to be affiliated with several deep-pocketed conservative legal advocacy groups and struck up the friendship after he was appointed to the top court in the land. All trifles of coincidence!

Zaxxon wrote:$500k in personal hospitality seems to strain the definition of the term.

Something weird happened this week: The Supreme Court didn’t issue any of the 33 rulings that are still expected in cases that have been argued during its current term, which began last October. An institution deeply committed to its traditions, the court usually releases such rulings every Monday (or, if it’s the week of Memorial Day, Tuesday) between the last oral arguments in April and the justices’ summer recess.

And because that’s usually not enough for a court that doesn’t like to hand down more than four or five decisions on the same day, the court typically adds extra “hand-down days” toward the middle and end of the final weeks of June to meet an all-but-formal goal of clearing the decks by July 4. Not having any decisions to hand down at all during the final week of May, with so many still to come, is more than a little unusual. Indeed, it’s indicative of a court that is way behind, having resolved by June 1 only 26 of the 59 cases that received plenary review, a paltry 44 percent of the total. (It’s been decades since the court left such a high percentage of its merits rulings for after June 1.)

There are both obvious and less obvious reasons for why the justices are running behind. No doubt, the unprecedented leak of a draft majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade and its continuing fallout are distracting the justices. So too, the growing amount of attention the court is paying to applications for emergency relief and other decisions on the so-called “shadow docket” — on matters ranging from abortion to congressional redistricting to Covid vaccination mandates to restrictions on social media platforms

...

But for all of the focus on the numerator, it’s worth not losing sight of the denominator, too. Whenever the justices rise for their summer recess this year, they will have failed to reach 60 signed decisions in argued cases for the third term in a row, having handed down 56 such rulings during the 2020–21 term and 53 during the 2019–20 term. Before then, the court had not handed down so few decisions since 1864 — in the middle of the Civil War. And although the 2019–20 total was necessarily affected by the onset of the Covid pandemic (which led the court to postpone arguments in 10 cases to the 2020–21 session), the trendline is, by now, unmistakable: The Supreme Court is handing down fewer and fewer merits decisions each term.

Smoove_B wrote: Fri Apr 07, 2023 1:19 pm ...and yet they can spring to action when it's time to revoke rights to half of the population.

ImLawBoy wrote: Fri Apr 07, 2023 4:43 pm I'm guessing that most folks who work for organizations that have compliance departments have it drilled into them that they should avoid accepting or giving any gifts that would present even the appearance of impropriety, even if there is no actual impropriety. Maybe SCOTUS needs a compliance group?

“I still can’t get over the collection of Nazi memorabilia,” says one person who attended an event at Crow’s home a few years ago and asked to remain anonymous. “It would have been helpful to have someone explain the significance of all the items. Without that context, you sort of just gasp when you walk into the room.” One memorable aspect was the paintings: “something done by George W. Bush next to a Norman Rockwell next to one by Hitler.” They also said it was “startling” and “strange” to see the dictator sculptures in the backyard.

Smoove_B wrote: Sat Apr 08, 2023 1:49 pm We are living in a simulation.



Article here.

“I still can’t get over the collection of Nazi memorabilia,” says one person who attended an event at Crow’s home a few years ago and asked to remain anonymous. “It would have been helpful to have someone explain the significance of all the items. Without that context, you sort of just gasp when you walk into the room.” One memorable aspect was the paintings: “something done by George W. Bush next to a Norman Rockwell next to one by Hitler.” They also said it was “startling” and “strange” to see the dictator sculptures in the backyard.

The women claim that in exchange for financial support, Richard Hubbard would “supply drugs for Crow’s parties, would force [Julia] Hubbard to have sex with Crow’s then-girlfriend in front of Crow…, would force Goedinghaus to have sex in front of Crow…, and would traffic other victims” to Crow’s “Forced Sex Parties.”