Taking Stock of Supreme Court Conflicts of Interest

North Star Writers Group ^ | May 13, 2008 | Lucia de Vernai

[Invisigoth]

Preventing the conflict of interest is one of the main goals of the American system of checks and balances. The scandal that erupts when Americans find out about conflict of interest is one of our national guilty pleasures. And it’s so much more gratifying when it’s the ones you least expected that get caught with their fingers in the cookie jar. Hooker or Saudi royal family photo album – we’re a nation of great diversity after all, you never know where you’ll find those sneaky politicians next.

Maybe that’s why it’s so interesting that the Supreme Court will not hear a case because four of our justices had to recuse themselves due to their holding of stock in the large companies that were parties to the suit. Technically, there is nothing wrong with trying to make some extra cash on the side – maybe if more justices were financially secure, they would retire before the current average age of 104. Trouble is that the lawsuit is being brought forth by South African apartheid victims accusing large corporations, including ExxonMobil, IBM, Coca-Cola and General Electric, of supporting the human rights abuses of the white regime beginning in 1948.

If you’re wondering what in the world U.S. courts are doing deciding cases between the citizens of another country and Canadian, American and European corporations, you may be surprised to know that while we may have told international law organizations to shove it and let the UN keep its New York headquarters just to keep the Trump family from owning everything in the city, we are not as isolated as we thought.

[Robert A Cook PE]

I suppose this means that Kenneday and Ginsburg are going to recuse themselves from ANY case regarding or involving the ACLU and its allies in socialism ....

[BenLurkin]

I've often wondered what dirt FDR dug up on SCOTUS that he blackmailed them with in the mid-1930s.

Reading the decisions, the court turned completely around between in 1935. It stopped supporting the Constitution and began denying challenges to FDR's numerous unconstitutional usurpations of power.