Thread by @PatriarchyHex

#SCOTUS🧵
Dear Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.,

I’m going to set aside the condescension implicit in your suggestion that questioning the legitimacy of your court is due simply to a disagreement over its decisions. 1/15

Regardless of how you choose to rationalize the unpopularity of your court, the plummet in public opinion is not because some Americans don’t like a few rulings. 2/15

In 2010, I was absolutely horrified by the Citizens United decision (and I still think it is one of the worst decisions ever made by #SCOTUS), but at that time, I still respected the #RobertsCourt as an institution. 3/15

A lot has changed since then. In 2016, after Justice Scalia died, #SCOTUS began to be politicized in many ways, beginning with a corrupt Congress that defied the legitimate nomination of our #POTUS, and then quickly rammed through a poorly qualified candidate of their own. 4/15

In the years since, the court has appeared to become increasingly compromised by the dubious loyalties of some of its justices. Questions have been raised about how truthful a few justices were when they testified under oath in their confirmation hearings. 5/15

One sitting justice on your court was reportedly shielded by a politicized #FBI from an investigation into numerous credible allegations of sexual assault. 6/15

At least one other justice has also been credibly accused of sexual assault, and none of these men recused themselves when #SCOTUS ruled on a case that took away the bodily autonomy of all women. 7/15

But most damning of all, there is a justice on your court who failed to report his wife’s income from a conservative advocacy organization. Further, that same wife actively participated in an attempt to overthrow the US government, 8/15

and that justice has also willfully refused to recuse himself from cases involving that attempted insurrection. 9/15

This isn’t about “political branches telling you what the law is,” or letting the court’s decisions be made according to “public opinion.” Your court will be considered legitimate when its members can convince the American people that their top priority is 10/15

to faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon them under the Constitution and laws of the United States – and not loyalty to their flavor of God; or to the person who may or may not have paid off their debts; 11/15

or to the political arm that possibly quashed evidence of their crimes; or to the political movement that they and their spouse travel the country to support. 12/15

Some of your judges live in a cloud of suspicion that is of their own making, because instead of giving the American people a reasonable measure of transparency, they are cloaked in questionable behavior that they refuse to address and that your court ignores. 13/15

If you want to change the opinion of the #RobertsCourt, you’re going to have to stop hiding behind your robes and address these problems. 14/15

And until you can do more than just give a speech in front of some like-minded cheerleaders, you can be sure that history will not paint a flattering portrait of the #RobertsCourt. 15/15

washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…