Kagan voices need for Supreme Court reform
WHAT YOU MISSED
- At a “Fancy Farm Picnic” event in rural Kentucky Saturday, constituents greeted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) with a sea of boos and chants, calling for the longest-serving U.S. senator in the state’s history to retire. Former President Donald Trump later shared the video on his Truth Social account with a simple caption: “I AGREE!”
- As legal fees pile up for the 16 Republican operatives in Michigan charged for trying to seditiously tilt the 2020 election for Donald Trump, a member of this cohort — former co-chair of the Michigan Republican party Meshawn Maddock — threw a pool party in her native Oakland County last Friday to raise money to fight the suit. “Hear From the Electors,” the flier announces.
- Contribution filings by Frank LaRose, the Republican Ohio Secretary of State who is campaigning to become the state’s junior senator, reveals that LaRose took $5,000 from real estate mogul and known tax felon James Batmasian. Batmasian was pardoned by Trump in the twilight of his presidency.
Kagan endorses code of ethics for highest court
At the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference last Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan expressed support for new regulations and restrictions on the conduct of judges on the bench.
“It just can’t be that the court is the only institution that somehow is not subject to checks and balances from anybody else. We’re not imperial,” Kagan said. “Can Congress do various things to regulate the Supreme Court? I think the answer is yes.”
Kagan’s comments come after months of scandals surrounding the court’s integrity. Both Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito were revealed to have received and accepted luxury gifts from shadowy conservative donors who had a stake in Supreme Court rulings. There have also been questions about the conflict of interest surrounding the spouses of Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts.
This, compounded by the court’s ruling on Roe v. Wade last summer, has cratered public opinion: Positive views of the third branch of government have fallen from 70% to 49% in a matter of a few years.
Such remarks mirror the sentiments expressed by the Senate Judiciary Democrats, who last month introduced a bill that would implement ethics standards and create a regulatory apparatus to enforce them. This predictably enraged Republicans, who claim liberals are politicizing the court to undermine its reactionary supermajority.
Alito shared this sentiment, saying in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal that Congressional action against the court is unconstitutional.
“I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it,” Alito said. “No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court — period.”
POLL WATCHERS
As Donald Trump faces a new wave of legal action surrounding his actions during the 2020 presidential election, new research indicates that America is polarized on the nature of the former president’s charges.
CBS News and the public polling firm YouGov found that while 51% of all those interviewed thought Trump attempted to overturn the election with intentional subterfuge; 49% either thought the former president’s actions were justified or were mere bluster.
Additionally, almost 60% of those asked thought legal action taken against Trump was meant to prevent him from running in the 2024 presidential election.
