2023-05-19
34 分钟This is in conversation from Apple News.
I'm Shemitah Basu.
Today, the institutional crisis at the Supreme Court and what reform could look like.
We are taught that our government is based on a system of checks and balances.
The executive branch, legislative and judicial branch.
They're all supposed to be able to rein each other in.
But with the Supreme Court's code of ethics under so much scrutiny lately, the question is who is above the highest court in the land?
Separation of powers is a two way street, and I think this is where the conversation has gone off the rails.
That's Stephen Vladek, a law professor at the University of Texas and longtime Supreme Court watcher.
There's no doubt that the Constitution intends for the the federal judiciary to be independent.
But there's also no doubt that independence does not mean unaccountable.
The most recent calls for more accountability come after ProPublica's reporting earlier this year that revealed that for more than two decades, Justice Clarence Thomas had accepted unreported gifts and luxury trips from a billionaire Republican donor.
Justice Thomas has said he was advised he didn't need to disclose those trips because because they were considered personal hospitality.
Justice Thomas has been criticized in the past for other possible ethics violations, including his wife, Ginni Thomas involvement in attempts to undermine the 2020 presidential election.
He's not the only justice under the microscope.
Politico recently found that Justice Neil Gorsuch didn't disclose selling property to a law firm CEO with multiple cases before the court.
Steve says these latest revelations are part of a much larger departure from norms, a real breakdown in the way that the Court is supposed to function.
He writes about this in his latest book, the Shadow how the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic.
I asked Steve to lay out what he sees as the biggest problems with the way the Supreme Court operates today and how reforming it could lead to a better, stronger institution.
I mean, I think the biggest pressing ethical issue with the Supreme Court today is that there's no way to resolve any ethical issue at the Supreme Court today.