U.S. Senator from Rhode Island, the Ocean State. Chairman of @SenateBudget.
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Jul 10 • 18 tweets • 3 min read
Yesterday, @RonWyden and I announced that we have asked the Attorney General to designate a Special Counsel to look into the mess surrounding billionaire gifts to Justice Clarence Thomas for violations of law.
Why did we do this? 🧵
First, there’s no fact-finding process for ethics complaints against Supreme Court Justices — the only people I know of in all of government who won’t allow basic factfinding about their conduct.
Jul 2 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
One of the many problems with vain and arrogant Supreme Court justices pulling a redo on whole areas of our constitution and laws, is that they get stuff wrong.
They see the result they (and their billionaires) want, and lurch for it.
Wreckage results... 🧵
Look at the pretense in Citizens United that all the massive special-interest spending they unleashed would be “transparent.” Multiple billions spent since in dark money proved that wildly wrong, but in their arrogance and cupidity, do they care? Not one bit.
Jul 1 • 16 tweets • 2 min read
I have written about how the FedSoc justices plot to take down precedents their billionaire supporters don’t like.
I’ve pointed to Janus, where they laid the groundwork beforehand and even invited the challenge (Alito’s handiwork).
Jul 1 • 16 tweets • 2 min read
Our current situation should give Dems a rejuvenating chance to focus better on fixing what’s gone wrong in America.
We face three huge threats: persistent internal attacks on our democracy, unbridled climate upheaval, and a captured Court with some deeply corrupt justices.
🧵
Behind each threat is dark money; massive anonymous political spending by special interests who hide their identities from the public.
Jul 1 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
This decision will cause even greater wreckage than Bush v. Gore.
In what should have been an expeditious and unanimous decision, The Court That Dark Money Built handed Donald Trump another win.
This deprives the American people of knowing whether the former president is guilty of attempting to overturn the last election before they head to the polls in November, and makes it much harder to hold a former president accountable for illegal acts committed while in office.
Jun 27 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I’m not the only one thinking that if justices were not hip-deep in smelly billionaire gifts and gratuities, they might not be rewriting anti-corruption laws to protect public officials receiving smelly gifts and gratuities. slate.com/news-and-polit…
The good parts: when “public servants can get soft kickbacks for their official acts and that’s just fine … this vision is fundamentally corrosive to a democratic government.”
Jun 26 • 8 tweets • 1 min read
Today, the Supreme Court reversed the Fifth Circuit in a case about limiting COVID misinformation spread through social media, holding the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue.
But what exactly does “standing” mean, and why does it matter?
Let’s unpack that. 🧵
Standing is the term for when someone has a real interest or injury that gives them a right to sue.
Jun 24 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
“So how many passes does one Supreme Court justice get? That’s the question Whitehouse has been asking for more than a year.”
Here’s what solving our debt trajectory looks like to me. 🧵
1. Keep the focus on debt-to-GDP ratio, and a glideslope to a safe ratio, that doesn’t shock the economy itself.
Adjust spending and revenue to glideslope.
Jun 14 • 15 tweets • 2 min read
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” — Walter Scott, relevant for Clarence Thomas.
Oh, what a saga it is. 🧵
It begins with Harlan-Crow-to-Clarence-Thomas freebie-yacht-and-jet-travel Round One. As Judge Wolf testified in my subcommittee, this was buried in the Judicial Conference a decade ago, with no public findings or report.
Jun 14 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
It begins with Harlan-Crow-to-Clarence-Thomas freebie-yacht-and-jet-travel Round One. As Judge Wolf testified in my subcommittee, this was buried in the Judicial Conference a decade ago, with no public findings or report.
Thomas did not get the message, and kept taking the freebies, which led to Crow-to-Thomas yacht-and-jet-freebies-PLUS*, Round Two, exposed thanks to Pulitzer-Prize-winning reporting by ProPublica.
Jun 13 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
A little history regarding House Republicans purporting to hold AG Garland in contempt for complying with a presidential assertion of executive privilege.
Assertion of this privilege is governed by a memo dating back to President Reagan, referred to (unsurprisingly) as the Reagan Memo.
Jun 13 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
I doubt that Justices Thomas or Alito would put up with arguments of the quality and veracity of their own arguments about their own ethics issues. They stand out for their inadequacy and unverifiability.
🧵
Let’s start with Alito’s MAGA battle flags: his statement is demonstrably inconsistent with verifiable conflicting information. The Alitos’ flag-flying preceded the dispute with their neighbors, and school buses were not running because of Covid.
Jun 7 • 13 tweets • 2 min read
Beaucoup breakdown required here. 🧵
cbsnews.com/news/supreme-c…
First, why the corrected Crow disclosures for 2019? Was this provoked by pressure from Crow under pressure from our Judiciary subpoenas? It will be interesting to cross-reference this with whatever we receive from Crow.
May 31 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Leo was essentially licensed to defy our subpoena by Senate Republicans saying that under no circumstances would they allow our subpoena to be enforced.
slate.com/news-and-polit…
Leo’s billionaire masters are major funders of the Republican Party, both overtly and covertly through dark money, so no big surprise there. They don’t want their guy under oath.
May 30 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
It is frustrating that the Chief Justice of the United States refused to address the aspect of our letter addressed to him as chair of the Judicial Conference.
Close reading of text is an attribute of a good judge. Simply ignoring text is often a sign that there’s not a good answer.
In this case, there’s not a good answer: the Judicial Conference is a body created by Congress and funded by Congress, enforcing laws passed by Congress.
May 29 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
This is why you take statements. A false statement can be a crime. Fox News is open season for falsehoods — no consequences. SCOTUS has to figure out how to take formal statements.
nytimes.com/2024/05/28/us/…
Senators and representatives and judges make statements to ethics committees. Biden was interviewed by DOJ. How is it that justices, and only justices, operate outside the rule of law?
May 26 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Rich how Exxon or anyone in fossil fuel industry has the nerve to complain about political conspiracies, or partisan state attorneys general doing others’ bidding. That’s a lot of projection, I’d say. 🧵 wsj.com/science/enviro…
Look at the massive array of fossil-fuel funded front groups through which the industry does its dirty work, dozens of them, which we have to fight every day in the climate wars.
May 24 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
When a Supreme Court justice is caught flying MAGA battle flags at his houses, it’s a pretty dazzling transgression. 🧵
But not a solitary one. It is worsened by the billionaire-funded gifts program for Thomas and Alito that rewards them with Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.
May 21 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
The Alito “insurrection flag” incident is bad enough (even Republicans have spoken out, which re: our captured Court is rare to see).
Worse, it’s not an isolated incident over at the Roberts Court.
🧵
Last year, Alito gave an “interview” on WSJ ed page where he (a) opined on a matter likely to come before the Court, (b) on a matter in active dispute, (c) with a lawyer on one side of that dispute (d) while Alito and a friend had direct personal interest in the outcome.
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