US Supreme Court in ‘legitimacy crisis’ says AOC at House oversight hearing

The US Supreme Court has been “captured and corrupted by money and extremism”, causing a “crisis of legitimacy” that threatens the stability of American democracy, warned Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Speaking during a round table at the Capitol, the New York Democrat accused the court of “delegitimizing itself through its conduct”.

In the two years since the court overturned Roe v Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion, a decision that provoked a strong political backlash from voters across the ideological spectrum, the court has been rocked by ethics scandals involving two of the most conservative justices on the Clarence bench, Thomas and Samuel Alito.

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“The highest court in the land today has the lowest ethical standards,” said Jamie Raskin, a Democratic congressman from Maryland and ranking member of the House oversight hearing who joined Ocasio-Cortez in convening the hearing.

Together, they sought to “connect the dots” between what they described as a web of dark money and the events that led to a conservative supermajority, cemented by Donald Trump. Only Democrats attended.

“Dark money is the rot in our democracy right now,” said Sheldon Whitehouse, a senator and longtime advocate against secret spending in politics and advocate for Supreme Court reform, who appeared as a witness.

Last week, Thomas officially revealed that he had taken a luxurious vacation to Indonesia and a retreat in California paid for by conservative billionaire Harlan Crow. The Republican mega-donor also paid private school tuition for Thomas’ great-nephew, ProPublica reported as part of a highly successful series of revelations about Supreme Court justices who won Pulitzer Prizes for public service.

ProPublica also reported that Alito flew on a private jet and vacationed with a billionaire who had court business. The conservative justice was already under scrutiny following a New York Times report that his wife flew an American flag upside down outside their Virginia home days after the attack on the US Capitol by extremist Trump supporters, as well as an Appeal to Heaven flag associated with Christian nationalism that flew out of a New Jersey beach house.

In response to the flag incidents, Democrats in Congress called on Alito to recuse himself from cases involving Trump and the Jan. 6 defendants.

He refused.

Democrats have also introduced a myriad of bills, such as one establishing an independent ethics office and internal investigation board at the Supreme Court. Other ideas include limiting judges to 18-year terms rather than lifetime appointments and expanding seats on the court. But the reforms are unlikely to happen without Republicans, who spent decades building the court’s conservative majority.

Thomas also refused requests to recuse himself from cases involving Trump because his wife, Ginni, a well-known conservative activist, supported the former president’s false claims about voter fraud and helped lead the campaign to overturn the 2020 election results.

Sustained scrutiny led the court to adopt its first code of ethics last year, but it lacks any form of enforcement. Public confidence in the court has increased fell to near historic lows.

Ocasio-Cortez questioned why judges are not subject to the same ethical standards as branches of government. As an example, she said members of Congress are Prohibited from accepting gifts valued at more than $50.

“Americans are losing fundamental rights in the process, reproductive health care, civil liberties, voting rights, the right to clean air and clean water because the court has been captured and corrupted by money and extremism,” she said.

Without a binding code of conduct, Raskin said, there was nothing to reign in judges.

“If you can decide the presidential election with five or four votes in Bush v Gore, if you can pack, stack and gerrymander not just Congress but the Supreme Court itself, denying the other side even a hearing, why would you cannot have some friend from the court – some amicus curiae – take you to Bali for vacationor pay your family member’s private school tuition or buy one for yourself recreational vehicle or send you a luxurious, all-expenses-paid vacationWhy the hell not?”