The Supreme Court has suddenly become controversial. “Supreme Court approval rating declines amid controversy,” headlines CNN. “What the Justice Clarence Thomas Scandal says about ethics on the Supreme Court,” opines NPR. “US Supreme Court Alito Ethics Controversy Spotlights Unchecked Power of Justices,” says Bloomberg. The list could go on and on.
Why is the Court suddenly controversial? Obviously because it is, at the moment, in the hands of relatively conservative justices. Democrats revere the Court when it is ruling their way. When they lose a few cases, they stir up bogus “ethics” controversies. Not because they have any merit, or because any knowledgeable person takes them seriously, but so that they can generate endless headlines in Democratic Party news outlets about the “controversial” Court that supposedly is dogged by ethics charges. This will undermine the Court’s stature in the eyes of the uninformed, and perhaps cause justices to take a more liberal turn in order to turn off the heat.
It is ironic, of course, that the Democrats are peddling fake ethics attacks on Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices at a time when their President is accused, with a great deal of evidence, of taking multi-million dollar bribes from foreign governments and interests. No ethics problem there!
The Democrats’ most recent volley is against Justice Samuel Alito. What did he do? Fifteen years ago, he hitched a ride on an airplane to go fishing in Canada. So what, you ask? So nothing. The Wall Street Journal gave Alito space to respond to the attacks levied against him by far-left mouthpiece Pro Publica. Alito’s response is devastating, and fun to read for that reason. I encourage you to follow the link.
But of course, the Democrats don’t really intend to win any arguments over the Republican justices’ “ethics.” Making the attacks, however absurd they may be, is simply a cover for Democratic Party news outlets to push the theme that the Court is now “controversial” and its justices–only the Republican ones, of course–are somehow shady.
It is a dirty game, but that is how Democrats do politics.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.