If you are part of the Watergate generation as I am, you may remember Deep Throat’s advice to reporters Woodward and Bernstein, “Follow the money.” If you are a generation or two later you may remember the line from the film Jerry McGuire, “Show me the money.” Either phrase puts you on the track of what I have been feeling lately in regards to this week’s rather dismal and disappointing Supreme Court rulings. How could they vote like this? How can they be so out of touch with the majority of the American people? What is the real basis for these opinions they are writing? My justice-minded husband loudly laments almost on a daily basis, “What on earth are they thinking!!??!!”
To which I can only reply, “Follow the money.”
I don’t like being skeptical of their motivation. It’s not that I like this concept of following the money, yet I honestly think it is the reality, the heart (if there is a heart to injustice and prejudice) of these recent opinions coming down from the Supreme Court. Bill McKibben in his excellent Substack blog The Crucial Years (which I highly recommend) writes, “…the gang of six justices now recasting our nation’s politics have invented a time machine of their own, one that lets you go back in history and erase goodness.”
I don’t want to go back in history. I have been there. It wasn’t so great and I am one of the privileged ones who did not really have to suffer. I certainly don’t want to see goodness erased. We already have members of Congress and some who have declared their candidacy for the Presidency working hard on a daily basis to do that.
But I don’t believe the Justices’ decisions are random or that they make their rulings because they are exceptional and sincere scholars of the Constitution. I firmly believe that they are following the money of some who have padded their pockets or financially supported them to get where they are and where they want to be and the direction they are pushing this country go. Do I find this disturbing? Absolutely. Do I find this in any way the will of the people? No.
There have been notable cracks in their judicial wall of ethics as information has become public in regards to Justices Thomas and Alito accepting and not declaring significant financial gifts. And yes, going on luxury trips such as the ones these two Justices accepted are worth mega bucks. Mega bucks for mega influence on judicial decisions? Hmmmm…follow the money.
Justice Alito, who notably penned the decision reversing Roe V. Wade last term, angrily stated in his recent op-ed to The Wall Street Journal:
It goes without saying that everyone is free to express disagreement with our decisions and to criticize our reasoning as they see fit, but saying or implying that the court is becoming an illegitimate institution or questioning our integrity crosses an important line.
I don’t think it is those of us in the public who have crossed the line. I think Alito and Thomas are the ones who have crossed the line and called the integrity of the court into question by accepting extravagant gifts PLUS failing to report these gifts AND protesting that they have done nothing wrong. Here is what it looks like to the rest of us: it looks like you have allowed your influence on the laws of our country to be purchased. Bought.
Okay. There is no real proof—and least not yet—that their votes on the court were purchased but their actions and lack of follow-up actions certainly creates a giant ethical question mark.
What a disturbing week. Follow the money.
Thanks for doing this column, Jeanne! I've read several columns/articles about the financial reasons behind the emergence of Jim Crow laws in the late 1800s and early 20th century. White landowners and other white tax payers didn't want "their" tax dollars paying for black education, healthcare, roads, etc. History continues to repeat itself. What's most disturbing about this latest round of bad decisions are those directed at access to healthcare (abortion/reproductive medicine) for women and transgender. We are rapidly drifting toward a theocratic autocracy in America.
The so-called ethics code just created by the SCOTUS is just putting lipstick on a pig. With no one to enforce the rules, what good are they. Clarence Thomas is an angry black man who wants to make up for the indignity of Anita Hill by grabbing any goodies he can get to come his way. Samuel Alito is a religious bigot who will impose his values on the world, and particularly on women, all of whom should remain second class citizens. My last comment is to observe that the Christian Nationalists, embodied by the new Speaker of the House, are no better than right wing Muslims who want to impose their Sharia Law on the Arab world.