Justice Jackson says people “are entitled to know” what gifts judges accept

https://www.axios.com/2024/09/01/supreme-court-gifts-ketanji-brown-jackson-ethics-reform

42 Comments

  1. SevereEducation2170 on

    They shouldn’t be allowed to accept any gifts. They’ve already got a well paying job for life that has great benefits. Basically everything about the Supreme Court needs a major overhaul.

  2. chunkerton_chunksley on

    There are thousands of jobs that require you not accept gifts. Surely the most influential people in the people’s justice department shouldn’t be allowed to accept even a free haircut.

    If they want to make more money they can quit and make more touring as a speaker or just parking their fat ass in a top law firm.

  3. OPM to federal employees: gifts with a value of $50 or more are illegal

    Supreme Court: Bribery is legal

  4. How about nothing over $25? That was my limit when I was working; allowed for the odd corporate merch.

  5. Judges should be forbidden from accepting gifts, but anyone worthy of being a judge should have too much integrity to take gifts in the first place.

  6. As a teacher, if I accepted a gift over $50, I’d be in trouble. Somehow the same doesn’t apply to judges for some reason.

  7. Otherwise_Variety719 on

    And the FACT that new “gifts” keep becoming known about Thomas then he swears that’s all there is until the next one pops up then rinse and repeat. I want criminal charges brought for lying on government forms for that prick. And for all the other doing the same damn thing.

  8. Careful-Rent5779 on

    Yes we are…

    Not to mention Clarence Thomas is likely guilty of tax evasion for accepting a “loan” for a $200+k RV that was later foregiven, but apparently not reported to the IRS.

  9. Agree. I’m ok with a fruit basket, foodstuffs, or bottle of booze for Christmas or whatever, but I sure want a searchable list of who gave what. Forgiven loans, private jet trips, vacations? Bribes. Speaking fees beyond travel and reasonable accommodations? More bribes. If you’re such a great legal mind, and your goal is getting rich, stay in private practice.

  10. Yeah, let’s not stop there. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The system was broken long ago and no attempt to change it will work unless something is done about ~~lobbyist cash~~ legal bribes in congress as well. [This](https://www.americanprogress.org/article/ban-lobbyists-fundraising-politicians/) article was written in 2018 and not one congressmember has championed anything remotely like it yet from either side of the isle. I wonder why?

    [It has become a serious threat to our nation as this 2016 article pointed out and the media almost never speaks of it…]( https://priceonomics.com/when-lobbying-was-illegal/)

    >Nearly half of all members of Congress now take lobbying jobs when they leave office. Congressmen have written that serving on a congressional committee is now “mainly valuable as part of the interview process for a far more lucrative job as a K Street lobbyist” and that it has “become routine to see members of Congress drop their seat in Congress like a hot rock when a particularly lush vacancy opens up.”

    >Since 2014, as journalist Ezra Klein points out, businesses have spent more money lobbying Congress than taxpayers have spent funding Congress.

    >We have traded an era in which bribery was widespread but provoked outrage and consequences when it was discovered for an age in which corruption is condemned but seen as inevitable, legal, and even constitutional.

    That’s the sad and disturbing reality in congress. Written back in 2016 and it’s only gotten worse. Nobody wants to kill their golden goose.

  11. BigBriocheBuns on

    They are not entitled to gifts in the first place. What is this world coming to. Any gift it s a bribe. They have more money than you. They don’t need gifts, while blocking reproductive rights and supporting presidential immunity?

  12. I’m a teacher.

    My “gifts” are often just parents providing supplies for my classroom so I don’t have to buy it.

    Meanwhile, politicians and justices can pretty much just accept whatever so long as it isn’t “too much.”

  13. They should not be allowed to accept gifts period. Jesus, people lose minimum wage service jobs over this ALL THE TIME.

  14. They shouldn’t get any gifts!

    Pay them more money with the pretense that if they take anything as a gift, they go right to jail. No questions asked.

    Take the job or leave it.

  15. It’s hard to see why such outright bribes and payoffs, not to mention being allowed to “invest” in business you are writing laws about, doesn’t get judges and Congressmen bounced on their ear. In Canada that stuff is outright illegal. Why is the US so effing corrupt?

  16. Or maybe, like the rest of the Federal government, they shouldn’t be allowed to accept them.

  17. Can we stop calling them gifts and call them what they really are, bribes? There is no other way it should ever be said. You took money or property or consumer goods from someone, when you’re a Supreme Court Justice, it’s a fucking bribe.

  18. Awesome now we get to know all the gifts Supreme Court Justice is get to be bribed with that seems like a fair and logical thing they get to do.

  19. Judges shouldn’t be allowed to get any gifts. If you got a problem with that don’t be a judge

  20. Ethics rules for Supreme Court justices will go into effects just as soon as a stock trading ban goes into effect for Congress.

  21. Diligent_Excitement4 on

    Is this even a debate ? Just goes to show you how the judicial system has normalized corruption

  22. PsychdelicCrystal on

    Preach. And if they do not report their gifts ala Alito and Thomas, there should be repercussions.

    There is great irony in Nixon, the AG, and Republicans pressuring SC Justice Abe Fortas to resign over $20,000. Now, Republicans openly allow their emperor, Donald Trump, to conspire with SC Justices out in the open while their mega donors treat Thomas/Alito to extravagant luxuries

  23. Misread that as “Janice Jackson” and agreed but was curious why we cared about her opinion on SCOTUS ethics