What A Fool Believes
The Supreme Court Gets Its Beak Wet
One of the more disheartening aspects of the Supreme Court Justice billionaire fuck buddy cases popping up in the news over the last couple months is the general “who gives a shit” of it all. Both Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have accepted lavish gifts from some of America’s wealthiest businessmen. These same businessmen have, coincidentally, had occasional business before the Court. Neither Thomas nor Alito recused themselves from these cases, nor did they disclose these gifts on their financial records. Does that smell a little stinky to you? If it does, congratulations, you’ve got a nose.
Why don’t more people care?
They used to. In 1969, Justice Abe Fortas resigned his seat after accepting $20,000 from the family foundation of a convicted stock manipulator. He was the first, and only, Supreme Court judge ever to do so. I guess back in the good old days of the fucking Nixon Administration, folks didn’t want their public officials to be corrupt. Or, if they were going to be corrupt, to at least have a little discretion about it. Today’s blatant self-dealing just seems so gauche in comparison.
Of course, there’s a big difference between receiving a cash gift of $20,000 and a luxury vacation worth over $100,000. What is that difference? About $80,000.
Would the reaction be any different if Thomas had gotten money stuffed in an envelope instead of through a shady real estate deal or reimbursed tuition payments for his grand-nephew? Would it be any different if Alito had taken his gift in the form of gold coins instead of an all-expenses-paid Alaskan fishing getaway? That trip was only one of at least a half dozen.
Maybe people shrug their shoulders because they already assume the worst about our political class. Why wouldn’t they? After decades of supporting evidence from members of both parties, why would they think the Supreme Court is immune? They wouldn’t. A 2021 Pew Research poll found that 67% of Americans believe that “most politicians are corrupt.”
Are they?
I have no idea but I do have a quick anecdote. I’m friendly with the family of a US senator. When I was touring doing stand-up, I was in their home city and offered tickets to the show. They said they’d be happy to come to the show but couldn’t accept free tickets. Doing so might have given the appearance of corruption. Retail value: about $120. Needless to say, I did not have any pressing business in front of the United States Senate. Anecdotes are meaningless, of course, but that gave me a little hope. It also put a few more bucks in my pocket. Wait a minute – maybe they were trying to bribe me!
On the other hand, one of the first things the current Congress did when they got into office was to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics, which was put into place in 2008 to investigate congressional corruption.
Why would they do that unless they wanted, I don’t know, more corruption?
Maybe the simple truth is that, in a nation increasingly run by oligarchs, it’s only natural that those at the top of our political system doing the bidding of said oligarchs want to get their beaks a little wet from time to time. Why shouldn’t they? The best desserts are just desserts.
Why shouldn’t the Supreme Court take full advantage of this lackadaisical approach to ethics? Who cares if John Roberts’ wife has received over $10,000,000 as a legal headhunter? Or that Ginni Thomas got half a mil for her foundation from the same guy that hosted Clarence at his Museum of Dictators? And why did Justice Elena Kagan declining a “care package” of bagels and lox from her high school classmates because she was concerned about the ethics? If anybody’s the idiot in this situation, it’s Kagan.
Or maybe the idiots are those of us who still care about this stuff. And yes, you can scream Hunter Biden all you want. I don’t care about Hunter Biden. I don’t care if Hunter Biden goes to jail. I also don’t care if Joe Biden goes to jail if he’s guilty of corruption. This isn’t a partisan thing for me. It’s a human decency thing.
Public service has to be about something. One of those things ought to be setting an example of ethical conduct for those you, allegedly, serve. When people at the top of our system are shoveling every damned dollar they can into their pockets, it gives implicit permission to those of us lower down on the food chain to do the same. If everybody’s getting theirs, you’re a fool if you don’t get yours too, pal.
I hate that we’ve become so inured to graft that the most we find ourselves capable of doing is tsk-tsking. Why doesn’t Biden speak up about it? Why don’t our Congressional leaders? What norms are we afraid of violating that are any worse than Supreme Court Justices getting their proverbial dicks waxed by billionaires? Why is it that those of us rubes still trying to do the right thing end up feeling like fools? It shouldn’t be this way.