This partisan delegitimization campaign has been comprised of feeble hit jobs from the jump – worthy of scorn and zero concessions, as I've argued previously. This one might be the most pitiful of the bunch, which is really saying something. The Guardian, a UK-based left-wing publication, has discovered that Justice Clarence Thomas had a Christmas party that his former clerks attended and helped pay for. Incredible journalisming, right there. But they dress it up in sinister verbiage, following the pattern of prior installments in this smear parade.
"Lawyers who have had business before the Supreme Court, including one who successfully argued to end race-conscious admissions at universities, paid money to a top aide to Justice Clarence Thomas, according to the aide's Venmo transactions," the article opens. Sounds serious, no? Well, no:
Love this from silly Guardian piece on Thomas clerks covering costs of Christmas party: "it remains unclear what the funds were for." Gee, what could the purpose have been? Such a mystery. pic.twitter.com/C6heMeHUPf
— Ed Whelan (@EdWhelanEPPC) July 12, 2023
Summary: Thomas had a Christmas Party with his current and former law clerks. The guests split some of the costs (guessing alcohol and snacks) via Venmo.
— AG (@AGHamilton29) July 12, 2023
That’s the entire story, but they quoted a crazy person who pretends to be an expert in ethics to declare it a scandal.
"This piece is simply journalistic malpractice," Jonah Goldberg tweeted. It's like the Guardian deliberately set out to mislead readers to feed an ideological narrative. The only other explanation is they just didn't do basic due diligence. Either way it's shameful." Why not a bit of both? Meanwhile, earlier in the week, Spencer wrote about an Associated Press scoop about Justice Sotomayor's ethics. I believe this represents the only press effort during this months-long push to even feign interest in one of the Court's progressive justices. If you missed it, here's the thrust:
Sotomayor’s staff has often prodded public institutions that have hosted the justice to buy her memoir or children’s books, works that have earned her at least $3.7 million since she joined the court in 2009. Details of those events, largely out of public view, were obtained by The Associated Pressthrough more than 100 open records requests to public institutions...In her case, the documents reveal repeated examples of taxpayer-funded court staff performing tasks for the justice’s book ventures...
We've highlighted Sotomayor's publishing income before, noting that nobody on the left seemed interested in her lack of recusal in a case involving a company that had directly paid her millions of dollars. Now, the AP finds that the justice's official SCOTUS staff was "prodding" outside organizations to buy more of her books. I'm not sure if any of this constitutes an ethics violation, but the lack of interest from the usual "scandal!" screamers is very revealing. While the nonsense "revelations" against conservative justices rocketed around social media and got heavy play in mainstream media, the AP's scoop generated just a few hundred retweets. Weirdly, the appetite of journalists and selective ethics watchdogs doesn't extend to Justice Sotomayor's exploits. I wonder why? What a mystery.
An investigation by @AP has found that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s staff prodded public institutions to buy her books, revealing repeated examples of taxpayer-funded staff performing tasks that ended up enriching the justice personally. https://t.co/FdveQMKdVk
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 12, 2023
I'll leave you with Senate Democrats playing along – which is, of course, the whole point of this charade:
New: The Senate has expanded its investigation into Supreme Court ethics.
— Josh Kaplan (@js_kaplan) July 12, 2023
One development: Senators have asked Leonard Leo—the powerful activist who helped organize Alito's trip—for a full account of all trips he's taken with or arranged for justices. https://t.co/Apwy1sq2aN