Jennifer Rubin: What more need Alito do before Durbin gets off the stick?

[Celerity]

Passivity in the face of Supreme Court corruption is unacceptable.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/26/alito-durbin-supreme-court/

https://archive.ph/0I7dt

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Capitol Hill on Dec. 19, 2023. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

One wonders what more Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. need do to defile the court’s reputation before Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) will do something more than issue a terse tweet or letter. After the New York Times reported on an upside-down flag identified with the Jan. 6 insurrectionists flying over Alito’s Virginia home in the days after Jan. 6, Durbin responded that he didn’t have “anything planned” in response. No hearing? No bill ready to go? Nope. “I think [Alito’s] explained his situation. The American public understand what he did,” Durbin proclaimed, as if Alito’s excuses were the definitive explanation for a gross breach of judicial ethics. “But I don’t think there’s much to be gained with a hearing at this point. I think he should recuse himself from cases involving Trump and his administration.” And if Alito doesn’t recuse, Durbin cannot find any “recourse other than impeachment, and we’re not at that point at all.” That weak-kneed response would not be Durbin’s worst on Alito this week.

When a second flag was discovered flying, this time over Alito’s New Jersey home, the Times reported that the “Appeal to Heaven” flag in question was also “carried by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021” and “is now a symbol of support for former President Donald J. Trump, for a religious strand of the ‘Stop the Steal’ campaign and for a push to remake American government in Christian terms.” And this symbol of Christian nationalism was aloft Alito’s house in 2023. With a second flag story, Durbin got huffy on social media. “This incident is yet another example of apparent ethical misconduct by a sitting justice, and it adds to the Court’s ongoing ethical crisis,” he tweeted. “Justice Alito must recuse himself immediately from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection.” Tribe declared that the issue was no longer “just about the insurrection-abetting Sam Alito, [but] about the AWOL Senator Durbin.” Tribe added, “He has no excuse for not holding hearings about Alito now.”

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

After all, Alito cannot very well blame his wife or another rude neighbor for this violation of the principle of judicial impartiality. The second flag not only sheds doubt on the veracity of the first round of excuses; it suggest he harbors an affinity for an antidemocratic group that defines the United States as a White Christian country, repudiates the division between law and Christian dogma and views the United States as under siege from secular forces. At the very least it suggest the appearance of such partiality. That is a gigantic problem for a justice who is required by statute to be and appear impartial. On issues involving the establishment of religion, gay rights and abortion, litigants opposing the Christian nationalist viewpoint should not have confidence they are dealing with a fair and impartial court. Durbin inadvertently revealed in a statement just how derelict he has been:

More than a year?! (Well, at least we know he has remained “focused” on ethics reform.) Alito’s misconduct also brings Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who heads an entire branch of government, to an inflection point. If he does nothing, Roberts is complicit in the destruction of the court’s reputation. Such spinelessness might even snatch from Roger B. Taney, the author of the majority opinion in Dred Scott, the title of “worst chief justice ever.” In one sign the pressure on Durbin is building, he and Judiciary Committee member Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) released a letter to Roberts imploring him to make certain that Alito recuses himself “in any cases related to the 2020 presidential election and January 6th attack on the Capitol, including the question of former President Trump’s immunity from prosecution.” They requested a meeting with Roberts “as soon as possible.” They continued, “Until the Court and the Judicial Conference take meaningful action to address this ongoing ethical crisis, we will continue our efforts to enact legislation to resolve this crisis.” Though Roberts is unlikely to agree, a refusal might then spur Durbin into taking meaningful action.

snip

[calguy]

1. What exactly can Durbin do to a partisan hack in a high place with a lifetime appointment?

[stopdiggin]

2. hearings to achieve what ??

the story(s) have been reported (extensively)
Those that care, care. Those that do not care - will continue to 'not care'. And those that remain unconvinced that it represents a crucial 'issue' ...

Sen Durbin has called (repeatedly) for the justice to recuse - which is about the sum total of his real power here.
'Hearings' on this sidebar issue - are going to sway a large swath of the body politic? Unlikely. Correction - very, very unlikely. And hounding the senator on the issue, serves ... ?

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[Silent Type]

3. He won't recuse. Unfortunately, not much can be done but to make sure Biden wins so trump doesn't get another nominee.

Alito will eventually die.

[duckworth969]

4. If Dems get the trifecta in November...

…they should quickly move to impeach Alito.

Pursue SC reform; impose term limits, expand court to thirteen justices (one for each circuit), rotate the thirteen in and out of the big nine chairs to keep the court from stagnating.