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🇺🇸 Alito, We Have Liftoff

Plus, Pickleball injuries could cost US up to $400M a year...

June 29, 2023

The Flag

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SCOTUS

Alito, We Have Liftoff

The Supreme Court finds itself on the defensive once again, after ProPublica printed an article suggesting Justice Samuel Alito failed to disclose taking a private jet to a fishing trip in 2008. The billionaire hedge fund manager who reportedly paid for the trip now has business before the court.

From The Flag: This is similar to when ProPublica levied allegations against Justice Clarence Thomas, claiming he’d gone on vacations with a Republican megadonor — thereby calling his integrity into question. Both Thomas and now Alito maintain these accusations are false. Here’s more from both sides.

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Alito’s All Twisted Up After All Was Not Disclosed

  • Alito’s attempt to defend himself just exposes how shady the Supreme Court’s ethics practices are and have been in the past.

  • Showing a deep disconnect from others and reality, Alito claims no one could doubt his impartiality, which is silly on multiple levels.

  • There’s really no defense here, given Alito flew on the plane of someone who later had business before the court.

Alito, Thomas and the Supreme Court’s culture of concealment ‍Steven Lubet, The Hill Op-ed: "Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s recent Wall Street Journal op-ed was revelatory... (providing) a virtual outline of problems with the Supreme Court’s ethics practices. ... In 2008, Alito spent three days at a luxury fishing camp in Alaska as a guest of the owner, Robin Arkley II, a wealthy Republican donor. ... As reported by Pro Publica, Alito did not include either the lodging or jet travel on his annual financial disclosure statement. Nor did he recuse himself when matters involving Singer’s interests came before the Supreme Court, including a 2014 case in which Alito voted with the majority to affirm a ruling that ultimately led to a $2.4 billion recovery by one of Singer’s companies. Alito defends his non-disclosure by invoking the well-worn 'personal hospitality' exception. The reporting requirement in force in 2008, he says, excepted all 'accommodations and transportation for social events,' although it was recently clarified to require greater disclosure."

Does Justice Alito Hear Himself? ‍Jesse Wegman, New York Times Opinion: "For someone who wields unimaginable power and exudes utter confidence in his own moral rectitude, Justice Samuel Alito is an exceptionally touchy guy. Exhibit A: His decision to devote time and energy to a newspaper essay defending himself against charges of ethical and legal violations that had not yet been published, and which he considered invalid in the first place. The essay, in both form and substance, epitomizes the bitterness and superciliousness that he has demonstrated in regular doses throughout his years on the Supreme Court. ... One of the hazards of an unelected lifetime gig is that you have little idea of what regular people actually think. Contrary to Justice Alito’s cosseted worldview, the real reason 'no such person' would doubt his impartiality is that no such person exists."

One more opinion piece from the Left: Samuel Alito’s Ethics Defense Is Even Less Persuasive Than His Legal Rulings ‍Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Ho-Hum: Another Baseless Attack on a Conservative Justice

  • Justice Alito maintains ProPublica has leveled false charges about Supreme Court recusal, financial disclosures, and his 2008 fishing trip.

  • The people accusing Alito of wrongdoing don’t care that it’s untrue: they’re just mad at his decisions and refuse to accept the outcomes.

  • Since the Supreme Court shifted right, media coverage has gone from hagiography to hit pieces — at a dizzying pace.

Justice Samuel Alito: ProPublica Misleads Its Readers Samuel A. Alito Jr., WSJ Op-ed: "ProPublica has leveled two charges against me: first, that I should have recused in matters in which an entity connected with Paul Singer was a party and, second, that I was obligated to list certain items as gifts on my 2008 Financial Disclose Report. Neither charge is valid. ... I had no obligation to recuse in any of the cases that ProPublica cites. First, even if I had been aware of Mr. Singer’s connection to the entities involved in those cases... On no occasion have we discussed the activities of his businesses, and we have never talked about any case or issue before the Court. ... The flight to Alaska was the only occasion when I have accepted transportation for a purely social event... Had I taken commercial flights, that would have imposed a substantial cost and inconvenience on the deputy US Marshals who would have been required for security reasons to assist me."

Justice Alito Has Done Nothing Wrong ‍Dan McLaughlin, National Review: "The ongoing and obviously coordinated progressive assault on the Supreme Court’s public legitimacy has moved on again to a new target: Justice Samuel Alito, the author of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. ProPublica, the dark-money-funded left-wing group at the center of the current 'ethics' barrage, published a report on an Alaskan fishing trip taken by Alito in 2008. ... We should start by dispensing with the pretense that this campaign against the conservative justices and the conservative legal movement is being waged in good faith or with genuine concern about ethics. It has instead been characterized by comically flimsy hit pieces, bad analogies that whitewash history, and dishonest character assassination. There is a long history of liberal and progressive judges finding implausible justifications to avoid recusal in hot-button cases... You won’t find these same outlets investigating the liberal justices’ social circles or the deficiencies of their financial disclosures."

One more opinion piece from the Left: ProPublica’s lame hit on Alito: a ‘dark money’ assault on high court ‍Glenn H. Reynolds, New York Post Opinion

FLAG THIS

Responding To Trips and Ranking Approval

Back in April, we polled our readers about Justice Clarence Thomas and his vacations taken with a megadonor friend.

We asked: “Was it improper for Justice Thomas to take these trips?” A majority (55%) said “yes, these are gifts that need to be disclosed,” while 45% said “no, he was traveling with a friend which is allowed.”

Polling released earlier this week shows just 30% approve of the Supreme Court, while 59% disapprove — the highest percentage since Quinnipiac started tracking the data in 2004.

Supreme Court Justices are mostly political figures.

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

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WATERCOOLER

Atlantis Docks, Three Types of Friendship, Jon Bon Jovi Factoid

The Space Shuttle Atlantis approaches the docking node on the Kristall module of Russia's Mir Space Station.

On June 29, 1995, the American space shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian space station Mir to form the largest man-made satellite ever to orbit the Earth.

Today I learned that Star Wars released a Christmas music album in 1980 and the producers wanted a better lead singer for the track "R2-D2 We Wish You a Merry Christmas" so they asked the 17-year-old kid who was sweeping floors at the studio, and he nailed it. His name was Jon Bon Jovi.

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