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THE SUPREME COURT’S DARK MONEY CRISIS: WYDEN’S REVOLUTIONARY FIX
 
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Thom Hartmann
October 9, 2024
The Hartmann Report
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_ How expanding and regulating the court could save America from GOP
billionaires _

, herbinisaac/Pixabay

 

The six Republicans on the US Supreme Court are up to their old
tricks, ruling
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week that Texas’ draconian abortion ban can continue without
modification, meaning that more women in that state will die or bleed
out to the point where their lives are in danger and/or their ability
to have future children is ended.

They are doing this, in part, because the Court has been captured by
a fringe rightwing
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death cult, the result of an intentional, well-funded campaign.

Longtime readers of Hartmann Report know I’ve written extensively on
the corruption of the Supreme Court by the billionaires who fund and
control the GOP. I’ve written two entire books about the Court
— _Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became “People”
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Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America
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hoping to stimulate interest in the topic and get some legislative
solutions to this out-of-control institution that is absolutely
unanswerable to the people of the United States.

Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, who’s been a frequent guest on
my radio/TV program, was apparently listening, or at least is on the
same wavelength. He’s proposed new legislation that would pretty
much solve the major problems with our Court and corruption-proof it
as we go forward.

ALONG WITH EFFORTS TO GET MONEY OUT OF POLITICS AND ESTABLISH AN
ABSOLUTE RIGHT TO VOTE, WYDEN’S _JUDICIAL MODERNIZATION AND
TRANSPARENCY ACT
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ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIECES OF LEGISLATION DEMOCRATS HAVE PUT
FORWARD IN YEARS. IT WOULD, AS HE LAYS OUT ON HIS SENATE WEBSITE:

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Expand the Supreme Court to 15 justices.

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The expansion is staggered over a total of 12 years with a president
getting to appoint one nominee in the first and third years of each
presidential term.

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Establish a new supermajority [2/3rds vote] threshold to overturn acts
of Congress on a constitutional basis at both the Supreme Court and
Circuit Court level.

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Require that relief granted by lower courts in cases seeking to
invalidate an act of Congress expire upon the issuing date of an
opinion by the Supreme Court.

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Establish a new process for Supreme Court nominations that are not
reported out of committee within 180 calendar days to be automatically
placed on the Senate calendar [thus ending the little trick that let
Mitch McConnell steal two seats by rigging the Senate schedule].

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Expand the number of circuit courts to 15 [to deal with the crisis of
our clogged courts] and return to the practice of assigning one
Supreme Court justice to oversee each circuit. [Currently there are 13
circuit courts and only 9 SCOTUS justices.]

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Expand the number of circuits by splitting the Ninth Circuit and
establishing a new Southwestern Circuit.

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Expand the number of Circuit Court and District Court judgeships to
improve access to justice.

The bill increases transparency to improve public trust by:

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Requiring all justices to consider recusal motions and make their
written opinions publicly available. Any justice would be recused from
a case upon the affirmative vote of the justices.

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Requiring the public disclosure of how each justice voted for any case
within the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. [No more
unsigned decisions.}

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Requiring the IRS to initiate an audit of each justice's income tax
return (and any amended return) as quickly as practicable after it is
filed. Within 90 days of filing, the IRS would be required to publicly
release the returns and provide an update on the status of the audit.
Every 180 days thereafter, the IRS must update the public on the
status of the audit. It will also release the ultimate findings of the
audit.

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Requiring those nominated to the Court to include their most recent
three years of tax returns in their publicly-available financial
disclosure filings. In the case that a nominee does not disclose the
tax returns within 15 days after nomination, the Administrative Office
of the United States Courts would be instructed to obtain the tax
returns from the Secretary of the Treasury and make them public. The
Secretary of the Treasury is instructed to redact certain personal
identity information.

Wyden’s legislation is breathtaking in its breadth and scope and is
the perfect companion legislation to a binding and enforceable code of
ethics for Supreme Court justices.

AND THE PUBLIC IS READY FOR IT. APPROVAL OF THE COURT IS AT
AN HISTORIC LOW
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PUSSYFOOTING AROUND THE TOPIC, DEMOCRATS SHOULD BE TAKING THE COURT ON
HARD AND OFTEN. IT’S NOT ONLY IMPORTANT FOR OUR DEMOCRACY; IT’S
ALSO GOOD POLITICS.

In a recent podcast
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Sirota’s news site The Lever [[link removed]],
Republican Senator John Thune tells the story of how he took down
Democratic Senate Leader Tom Daschle by campaigning relentlessly on
Republicans taking control of the Supreme Court. Thune bragged to his
audience:

“It was one of our biggest applause lines.”

THE SUPREME COURT IS AN ISSUE THAT REPUBLICANS HAVE BEEN USING TO WIN
ELECTIONS SINCE THE 1950S, AND DEMOCRATS HAVE TRAGICALLY IGNORED.

As a result, Republicans on the Court have, among other things:

— stripped Americans of our voting rights,
— BLOCKED PRESIDENT BIDEN’S EFFORTS TO REDUCE STUDENT DEBT,
— allowed Red states to deny low-income workers access to Medicaid,
— endorsed massive voter purges,
— legalized political bribery and dark money,
— legalized foreign involvement in our elections,
— GIVEN CORPORATIONS ACCESS TO THE BILL OF RIGHTS,
— gutted unions’ rights and the right to unionize,
— ENDORSED DISCRIMINATION AGAINST QUEER AND OTHER MINORITY
COMMUNITIES,
— largely ended affirmative action,
— ENDED THE POWER OF THE EPA TO REGULATE GREENHOUSE GASSES,
— created an entire billionaire- and corporate-run dark money
machine,
— HANDED THE 2000 ELECTION TO ITS LOSER,
— blocked or slowed federal and state prosecutions of Trump,
— PLACED THE PRESIDENT ABOVE THE LAW,
— made themselves the sole arbiters of what a president may or may
not do,
— ENDED WOMEN’S CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO ABORTION,
— radically cut back on American’s right to protest,
— FILLED OUR STREETS AND SCHOOLS WITH GUNS, and,
— legalized the equivalent of machine guns.

Hopefully, Wyden’s legislation can make it into law, enabling us to
rescue our republic from the clutches of the corrupt, retrograde
Republicans on the Court who’ve seized it.

IT’S ANOTHER VITAL REASON WE MUST DO EVERYTHING WE CAN TO HOLD THE
SENATE AND WHITE HOUSE THIS NOVEMBER, ALONG WITH RETAKING THE HOUSE.

Vote!

_Thom Hartmann is the NY Times bestselling author of 34 books in 17
languages & nation's #1 progressive radio host. Psychotherapist,
international relief worker. Politics, history, spirituality,
psychology, science, anthropology, pre-history, culture, and the
natural world._

* U.S. Supreme Court
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* bias
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* court reform
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* Ron Wyden
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