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Administrator- Joined
- May 11, 2013
- Posts
- 24,887
- Reaction score
- 13,613
- Points
- 2,755
- Location
- Morganton, N.C.
- Website
- conversations-ii.freeforums.net
(The Guardian) Top Senate Republican suggests Democratic lawmakers should face 'discipline' for pressuring court
As Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell played a major role in creating the conservative supermajority on the supreme court, by confirming Donald Trump’s rightwing justices and blocking Barack Obama from appointing a liberal judge in 2016.
Republicans are now in the minority in the Senate, but McConnell still leads the party, and he is not happy with Democratic senators who have called for Samuel Alito to recuse himself from cases concerning the 2020 election, or for the chief justice, John Roberts, to sit down for a meeting to discuss the court’s ethics.
In a speech on the chamber’s floor yesterday, McConnell warned that two of the Democratic senators calling for the court to (so far unsuccessfully) act, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, could face “discipline” because they are lawyers who have been admitted to the supreme court’s bar.
Here’s more from McConnell: Three of our colleagues have taken it upon themselves to write to the chief justice and demand Justice Alito’s recusal in cases. One went so far as to tell the chief that he should strip Justices Alito and Thomas of the ability to write majority opinions unless they recuse from the cases liberals don’t want them hearing.
This goes beyond the standard disgraceful bullying my Democratic colleagues have perfected. Recusal is a judicial act.
These senators are telling the chief justice, privately, to change the course of pending litigation. This is known as ex parte communication and it is frowned upon by the ABA’s Model Code of Judicial Conduct.
This matters because at least two of these colleagues of ours, the junior senator from Rhode Island and the senior senator from Connecticut, seem to be members of the supreme court bar. If so, they are, therefore, potentially engaged in unethical professional conduct before the court.
They may be under the mistaken impression that their persistent attempts to threaten the federal courts are a permissible use of their legislative office. But they are officers of the court and bound by a different set of rules than a mere senator. These rules provide for discipline against those who engage in ‘conduct unbecoming’ an officer of the court.
I might suggest to our colleagues that unethical ex parte communications seeking to change the course of pending litigation is such conduct. And that the court should take any remedial action it feels to be appropriate.
As Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell played a major role in creating the conservative supermajority on the supreme court, by confirming Donald Trump’s rightwing justices and blocking Barack Obama from appointing a liberal judge in 2016.
Republicans are now in the minority in the Senate, but McConnell still leads the party, and he is not happy with Democratic senators who have called for Samuel Alito to recuse himself from cases concerning the 2020 election, or for the chief justice, John Roberts, to sit down for a meeting to discuss the court’s ethics.
In a speech on the chamber’s floor yesterday, McConnell warned that two of the Democratic senators calling for the court to (so far unsuccessfully) act, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, could face “discipline” because they are lawyers who have been admitted to the supreme court’s bar.
Here’s more from McConnell: Three of our colleagues have taken it upon themselves to write to the chief justice and demand Justice Alito’s recusal in cases. One went so far as to tell the chief that he should strip Justices Alito and Thomas of the ability to write majority opinions unless they recuse from the cases liberals don’t want them hearing.
This goes beyond the standard disgraceful bullying my Democratic colleagues have perfected. Recusal is a judicial act.
These senators are telling the chief justice, privately, to change the course of pending litigation. This is known as ex parte communication and it is frowned upon by the ABA’s Model Code of Judicial Conduct.
This matters because at least two of these colleagues of ours, the junior senator from Rhode Island and the senior senator from Connecticut, seem to be members of the supreme court bar. If so, they are, therefore, potentially engaged in unethical professional conduct before the court.
They may be under the mistaken impression that their persistent attempts to threaten the federal courts are a permissible use of their legislative office. But they are officers of the court and bound by a different set of rules than a mere senator. These rules provide for discipline against those who engage in ‘conduct unbecoming’ an officer of the court.
I might suggest to our colleagues that unethical ex parte communications seeking to change the course of pending litigation is such conduct. And that the court should take any remedial action it feels to be appropriate.
