Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse Demands Investigation of Justice Samuel Alito's 'Improper Opining'
In an unfortunate act of self-beclowning perhaps unequaled by anything "The Squad" has come up with this week, Rhode Island Democrat Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts demanding that he open an ethics investigation into Justice Samuel Alito for among other things, "improper opining."
None of this is hard to understand. Whitehouse is leading the charge to create an outside watchdog group to monitor the "ethics" of US Supreme Court justices. While he cloaks the bill in "good government" bullsh**, it has three purposes. First, to create a body that will respond to Democrat demands for investigations; second, to use the body to invent "conflicts of interest" to force selected justices to recuse themselves from cases on the most specious of grounds; and third, to run Justice Clarence Thomas off the Court.
The improper opining comes from a Wall Street Journal interview (Samuel Alito, the Supreme Court’s Plain-Spoken Defender) where he discussed Whitehouse's efforts to meddle in the internal workings of another branch of government.
The attacks on the court are sure to keep coming as well. Last week the Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to advance Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act, which purports to impose on the justices and their clerks regulations “at least as rigorous as the House and Senate disclosure rules.”
Justice Alito says he voluntarily follows disclosure statutes that apply to lower-court judges and executive-branch officials; so do the other justices. But he notes that “Congress did not create the Supreme Court”—the Constitution did. “I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it,” he says. “No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court—period.”
See RedState's analysis of that interview at Justice Alito has Stern Words for Sheldon Whitehouse and His Attempt to Grab Control of the Supreme Court.
What makes Whitehouse's demand such a clown car of an effort is that the evidence he uses to substantiate his complaint refers to cases likely to come before the Court. Whitehouse's bill definitely is not one of those.
In addition to the "improper opining" nonsense, Whitehouse drums up additional counts:
- Improper Opining on a Legal Issue that May Come Before the Court;
- Improper Intrusion into a Specific Matter;
- Improper Intrusion into a Specific Matter at the Behest of Counsel in that Matter;
- Improper Intrusion into a Specific Matter Involving an Undisclosed Personal Relationship; and
- Improper Use of Judicial Office for Personal Benefit.
The rest of these charges come from Whitehouse gunning for Federalist Society activist Leonard Leo, whom Whitehouse is investigating for mopery with the intent to loiter or some other egregious offense, and for Alito agreeing to be interviewed by Wall Street Journal contributor David Rivkin, who is representing Leo. Whitehouse is investigating a fishing trip where Alito was Leo's guest. He's demanded documents and testimony from Leo, who has, through Rivkin, told him to FOAD. That answer seems very likely to be all that Whitehouse will get. I'm sure he doesn't like Alito tap-dancing on his face —
As the author of the bill in question and as a participant in the related investigations, I feel acutely the targeting of this work by Justice Alito, and consider it more than just misguided or accidental general opining. It is directed to my work.
— But he's not required to like it.
To a great extent, Whitehouse seems to think he's working for the Department of Pre-Crime. None of the underlying offenses he's complaining about have taken place. What he's demanding investigated is not even ethical misconduct. Where he sees a plot, he is looking at an editorial board calendar made up months ago.
The Senator claims that the Journal interview was “coordinated with Mr. Rivkin’s efforts to block our inquiry.” In fact, the timing of the interview, which Mr. Rivkin conducted with Journal editor James Taranto, was planned months ahead to take place after the Supreme Court term ended. Mr. Whitehouse sees a political conspiracy everywhere, but sometimes an interview is merely an interview.
Our favorite line in Mr. Whitehouse’s letter says that “at the end, Justice Alito is the beneficiary of his own improper opining.” In other words, how dare Justice Alito defend himself from unfair attacks by Mr. Whitehouse, whose real goal is to coerce the Justices into doing his political bidding.
Expect this clownage by Whitehouse to accelerate as the next Supreme Court term begins. He will do everything he can to cast aspersions on Court decisions when those run against his politics, and his indifference to facts means there are no limits to what we can expect from him.
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