WASHINGTON ― Progressive teams and authorized specialists have more and more demanded that Senate Democrats do extra to carry Supreme Court docket Justice Samuel Alito accountable after stories of a number of controversies and obvious moral breaches, which embrace revelations that flags flown at two of his residences had been like ones insurrectionists carried as they attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Some have urged Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Unwell.), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, to make use of extra hardball techniques, like subpoenaing Alito to testify. Greater than two dozen organizations just lately pressed Durbin to launch an investigation particularly into Alito’s compliance with federal regulation and moral requirements.
However Durbin mentioned Wednesday that the committee received’t be doing these issues.
“Quite honestly, subpoenaing a Supreme Court justice is not in the cards,” he advised HuffPost. “It’s not going to happen.”
The Illinois Democrat mentioned he wished that the progressives demanding this “would consider the actual rules of the Senate and the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
The maths merely isn’t there to go this route, he mentioned. Within the committee, it could take both a bipartisan vote or a majority vote to subpoena Alito. The votes undoubtedly aren’t there for a bipartisan vote, and it’s questionable in the event that they’re there for a majority, he mentioned. Past that, even when sufficient committee members agreed to subpoena Alito, it could take 60 votes within the full Senate to approve it. The votes aren’t there for that both, he mentioned.
Durbin mentioned there wasn’t a lot senators may do to implement a subpoena towards a Supreme Court docket justice anyway.
“If they tear it up in front of me, there’s little I can do other than say, ‘You’re missing an opportunity if you have a story to tell,’” the judiciary committee chair mentioned. “That’s the best we can do.”
Anna Moneymaker by way of Getty Photos
As for launching a brand new investigation into Alito, Durbin dismissed the concept that the committee isn’t already trying into justices’ ethics, given the bombshell reporting that’s come out about their actions within the final yr or so.
Journalists discovered that Justice Clarence Thomas has been handled to luxurious holidays nearly yearly for the final 20 years by conservative GOP mega-donor Harlan Crow with out disclosing or reporting them. Alito took a luxurious fishing trip with a GOP billionaire who later had instances earlier than the court docket. Justice Neil Gorsuch didn’t report that the top of a regulation agency, with instances earlier than the court docket, purchased a 40-acre tract of his property.
The committee responded to those tales by inviting Chief Justice John Roberts to testify in regards to the court docket’s ethics points (Roberts refused), requesting data from Roberts about how the court docket is implementing its toothless code of conduct, and individually requesting that Alito and Thomas recuse themselves from instances through which there have been questions on their impartiality. (Alito refused. Thomas by no means responded and selected to not recuse himself.)
“We issued subpoenas to some of the sugar daddies, and we received some information, which we’re processing now,” Durbin mentioned, referring to the panel beforehand serving subpoenas to Crow and conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo, each of whom have shut ties to Supreme Court docket justices.
Requested particularly about progressive teams urging an excellent nearer examination into Alito, Durbin mentioned solely, “I don’t know what they’re talking about.”
However progressives agitating for extra motion by Durbin had been happy by some developments this week. The Judiciary Committee launched new data on Thursday, completely obtained by its subpoena of Crow, detailing three extra non-public jet journeys that Thomas did not disclose.
“The report that Sen. Durbin and his committee released yesterday, which shone further light on Justice Thomas’s own seemingly never-ending ethical lapses, is exactly the type of work that is so critical to setting the stage for ensuring long-term improvements in the functioning of the judiciary,” mentioned Maggie Jo Buchanan, managing director of Demand Justice, a progressive judicial advocacy group.
“Moving forward, sustained efforts — particularly in regard to investigations and findings into the Chief Justice’s handling of such revelations and the institution he is responsible for protecting the integrity of — will be similarly important to the future of our democracy,” she mentioned.
On Wednesday night, Democrats additionally tried to deliver up a invoice on the Senate ground ― the Supreme Court docket Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act ― that may require the 9 justices to undertake a binding code of conduct. Republicans blocked it from getting a vote.
This was a completely anticipated outcome. Republicans don’t help this invoice as a result of they don’t suppose it’s applicable for the legislative department to inform the judicial department the right way to function. Democrats introduced the invoice as much as ship a message, although: that they tried to do one thing, something, to rein within the Supreme Court docket justices’ conduct, and the GOP shot it down.
Durbin has repeatedly mentioned his most well-liked resolution to addressing moral issues with Supreme Court docket justices is passing this invoice. But when it doesn’t have any GOP help, what’s the purpose of constant to attempt to move it?
“The math may not be there to do it, but the Republicans are going to be in a position of trying to explain or forgive this conduct,” he mentioned. “I don’t think that’s easy.”
It’s not clear what Senate Democrats will do now, past making an attempt to carry one other ground vote on their in any other case doomed Supreme Court docket ethics invoice. It’s a presidential election yr, in spite of everything, and Congress will more and more be holding votes on payments purely for messaging functions.
Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) signaled Wednesday that Democrats aren’t finished making an attempt to carry Supreme Court docket justices accountable.
“I’ll continue to discuss with Sen. Durbin the best way to go forward,” he advised reporters.
