{ "type": "rich", "version": "1.0", "provider_name": "Action Network", "provider_url": "https://actionnetwork.org", "html": "
", "author_name": "Inequality Media Civic Action", "author_url": "https://actionnetwork.org/groups/inequality-media-civic-action", "title": "Pass Biden's Supreme Court Reforms", "thumbnail_url": "https://actionnetwork.org//images/generic_facebook.jpg", "description": "Landing Page Content: The Supreme Court has a crisis of legitimacy. It’s the natural result of scandal after scandal involving justices’ failures to recuse, their acceptance of lavish gifts, and the formerly GOP-led Senate’s excessive partisanship in even considering justice nominations. The Court no longer has the support or represents the values of the American public. According to a recent Associated Press-NORC poll, only 16% of Americans report a “great deal of confidence” in the Supreme Court, compared to 40% who express no confidence at all. To address this multi-pronged crisis, President Biden is calling for two essential Supreme Court reforms that Congress should pass immediately: A binding, enforceable Code of Ethics for the Supreme Court, that would address disclosure of gifts, refraining from public political activity, and recusal from cases in which a justice or their spouse has a financial or other conflict of interest; and Term limits for Supreme Court justices; specifically, a system in which the President would appoint a Justice every two years to serve eighteen years in active service on the Court, followed by lifetime status as Senior Justice, able to fill in temporary vacancies or to serve in lower appellate courts as needed. Of all the scandals rocking the Supreme Court today, none is more important than the failures of Justices Thomas and Alito to recuse themselves from the presidential immunity case in which, despite clear indications of their support for the January 6 insurrection, they ruled in favor of a president’s “absolute immunity” for “official” actions. Justice Alito’s MAGA sympathies were on clear display when he allowed his wife to fly two insurrectionist flags outside their homes: an upside-down American flag and the White Christian Nationalist “Appeal to Heaven” flag, both of which were flown by rioters on January 6. The impartiality of Justice Thomas, too, is called into serious doubt by his wife Ginni’s actions, as she pressed Arizona and Wisconsin lawmakers to appoint slates of fake electors after Trump lost those states in 2020, and she urged Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to “help this Great President stand firm” on January 6 as the mob violently assaulted Capitol Police. Meanwhile, we keep hearing about new scandals involving Justice Thomas and his proclivity to accept lavish, unreported gifts from billionaires seeking favors from the Court. Other justices, too, have accepted gifts. Whether it’s opera tickets for John Roberts, cowboy boots for Neil Gorsuch, or rifles for Antonin Scalia, gifts buy influence, and they must be limited A Code of Ethics especially must establish a means of enforcement. Justice Elana Kagan favors appointing a panel of independent judges to review alleged ethics code violations. Another approach, as suggested by Boston University professor Jed Shugerman, is to make ethics violations illegal, declaring that “granting access for something of value is a crime.” Though signaling a sea change in judicial accountability, President Biden’s proposed Supreme Court reforms do not require constitutional amendments. They are achievable by legislative action. No other major democracy provides life-long terms for its high court justices, and every other judge in the United States is subject to a binding code of ethics. Send a direct message to your two Senators and House Representative: Prepare and pass a Supreme Court reform package addressing President Biden’s two crucial reforms: a binding Code of Ethics and 18-year term limits for justices.", "url": "https://actionnetwork.org/letters/pass-bidens-supreme-court-reforms" }