It bears repeating. Our institutions are the keystones of our democracy. Destroy them and the system fails. We all know this, yet we do not get upset enough when people chip away at the mortar that binds them and us.
Institutions require communal acceptance by a supermajority of the population. Few require more acceptances than the Supreme Court. It does not have an army or a police force. It cannot write regulations that protect us. It cannot declare war or appropriate money. Yet it is the third equal branch of our republic. It is strength is the people’s acceptance of its rulings.
To gain that acceptance it must be above reproach. Its justices are appointed by the executive branch with the advice and consent of the legislative branch. Their term is for life. Any scandal or perception of a scandal chips away at their reputation. A conflict of interest or the perception of a conflict further chips deeper, wider, and farther into the mortar.
Federal judges are bound by a strict code of ethics. The slightest hint of conflict or bad behavior results in recusal or resignation. Not so for the Justices of the highest court in the land. It only recently adopted a code that equates to using cement without water. It matters.
Our tradition is that the court's judgments become the law of the land. Several cases changed who we are, how we relate to each other, and how we move forward.
·
Marbury v. Madison, 1803 – the court has the
power to interpret the Constitution and the laws of Congress.
·
Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896 – the court ruled that
school segregation was permitted as long as the facilities were equal.
·
Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857 – the court ruled
that enslaved people were not citizens and had no standing in courts.
·
Brown v. Board of Education, 1954 – the court
overturned Plessy v. Ferguson.
·
Miranda v. Arizona, 1966 – the court ruled that
Miranda’s conviction was inappropriate because he had not been told of his
constitutional rights.
·
Roe v Wade, 1973 – the court ruled that a
woman’s right to choose an abortion was protected by the privacy content of the
14th Amendment.
·
U. S. v. Nixon, 1974 – the court ruled
unanimously that the need to provide evidence in a court case outweighed a
president’s limited immunity.
·
Dobbs v. Jackson, 2022 – the court ruled that
abortion was not protected at the federal level and was the decision of the
states.
We may not agree with the court’s rulings, but we live with them because we believe they rule on the law, not the political winds. Today the court, the institution itself, is at its lowest level of national trust among the people.
Justices are the product of a political system. Once installed, however, we expect them to behave in a non-political way. Two sitting justices seem hellbent on destroying the court’s institutional integrity. There is division in the country that we have not seen since the Civil War. The court is expected to rule on the issue of presidential immunity, on the issue of the January 6th invasion of the capitol building, and on the question of interference in the counting of the ballots in the last election. To preserve its integrity, those sitting on the bench must be seen as impartial. But …
Justice Thomas cannot be seen as impartial.
·
He has identified rights that he thinks should
be changed.
·
His wife is complicit in the January 6th
insurrection and called for using fake electors in more than one state.
Justice Alito cannot be seen as impartial.
·
An inverted U.S. flag flew at his home. While
nominally a sign of distress it became a symbol for those who believed in an
unsubstantiated stolen election.
·
“An Appeal to Heaven” flag, symbolic of white
Christian nationalism and some conspiracy theories, flew from his vacation home
in New Jersey.
These two justices were appointed for life and can only be removed by impeachment. They have shown disdain for "equal justice under law." Common decency would suggest that they resign.
