Team,

The Supreme Court has an ethics problem.

Our system of government is based on three separate but equal branches: the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judiciary. So it doesn’t make a lot of sense that the Supreme Court isn’t required to follow the same basic ethics and transparency rules that the other branches do.

The news that broke recently – that the Supreme Court’s decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, which blew a hole in the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that health insurance cover birth control, came after a long, secretive influence campaign by wealthy conservative activists – renews serious questions about improper influence at the Supreme Court.

I’m working hard to get to the bottom of this and to push for an enforceable code of ethics for Supreme Court justices. I’m hoping you’ll support me by pitching in $5 to my campaign before our end-of-month deadline.
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This isn’t the first question about ethical issues among conservative Supreme Court justices.

Each detail we learn about Ginni Thomas’s involvement in the January 6 insurrection makes clearer that she was working to overturn the will of the American people and keep Trump in office. Even so, there has been no inquiry into Justice Clarence Thomas’s assertion that he knew nothing of his wife’s activities, and he has refused to recuse himself from decisions related to the attack on the Capitol even after her activities became front page news.

Making matters worse, there is little accountability around the swarms of secretively funded “friend of the court” briefs filed by activist groups looking to sway the Court’s decisions. The extent of judicial lobbying through these briefs has exploded in recent years, and the pattern of success of the right-wing swarms with the Federalist Society justices is troubling.

It’s no coincidence that Americans’ faith in the Court has plummeted to historic lows.

To win back Americans’ trust, the Supreme Court needs to show the people that it is a truly impartial body – not one where dark money groups can buy private time and covert influence with justices, and not one where justices’ ties to attacks on democracy go unquestioned.

We can do better. But the first step to recovery is admitting that there is a problem. At SCOTUS, problems run deep. We must build basic accountability into the system to root out political influence and ensure Americans get a fair shake before the Court.

I’m committed to that fight, now and every day. If you can, chip in $5 right now to my campaign so we can keep this Senate seat, keep the Senate, and push for guardrails to protect democracy.
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Thank you,

Sheldon

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