Tag Archives: Samuel Alito

‘BIG Victory for PA Voters’: US Supreme Court Denies GOP Bid to Block Thousands of Ballots

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“This is a win for democracy and the rule of law,” said one ACLU attorney. “The bottom line is that voters deserve to have their voices heard.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 11-1-2024 by Common Dreams

Photo: i_am_curiouskiwi/flickr/CC

After allowing Virginia Republicans’ voter registration purge earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a GOP effort to block thousands of ballots for the November 5 election from being counted in the key swing state of Pennsylvania.

Democratic elections lawyer and Democracy Docket founder Mark Elias called the decision “a BIG victory for PA voters.”

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‘Unfathomably Cruel’: Billionaire-Backed Justices Rule in Favor of Criminalizing Homelessness

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“Maybe the right-wing justices could empathize with the most vulnerable Americans if they spent less time jet-setting on luxury vacations on their wealthy benefactors’ dime,” said one critic.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 6-28-2024 by Common Dreams

Homeless encampment in Downtown Los Angeles over the freeway in 2021. Photo: Levi Clancy/Wikimedia Commons/CC

“SCOTUS just criminalized homelessness.”

So said numerous legal experts and advocates for the unhoused Friday after the U.S. Supreme Court’s right-wing supermajority ruled that local governments can enforce bans on sleeping outdoors, regardless of whether municipalities are able to offer them shelter space.

In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the justices ruled in City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson that officials can criminalize sleeping and camping on public property including parks, even when housing options are unavailable or unaffordable.

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Lindsey Graham Blocks Democrats’ Attempt to Pass Supreme Court Ethics Bill

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“Senate Republicans just showed how out of touch they are with what most Americans want—a Supreme Court free of corruption.”

By Jake Johnson. Published 5-13-2024 by Common Dreams

Senator Lindsey Graham speaking with attendees at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s 2023 Annual Leadership Summit at the Venetian Convention & Expo Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo Gage Skidmore/flickr/CC

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on Wednesday blocked an attempt by Senate Democrats to pass Supreme Court reform legislation by unanimous consent, thwarting efforts to establish a binding ethics code for the nation’s top court as two of its right-wing justices come under fire for taking billionaire-funded luxury vacations and flying flags associated with the January 6 insurrection.

The Democratic legislation—titled the the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act—advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee nearly a year ago without any GOP support. The bill would give the high court 180 days to adopt a binding code of ethics and establish new recusal requirements surrounding justices’ acceptance of gifts.

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US Supreme Court Accused of ‘Full-On Gutting of the Equal Protection Clause’

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The right-wing majority’s ruling in South Carolina case will make it “nearly impossible for any plaintiff to prove racial gerrymandering in court,” said one legal expert.

By Julia Conley Published 5-23-2024 by Common Dreams

Activists gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court for oral arguments in the Alexander v. South Carolina Conference of the NAACP gerrymandering case in Washington on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Upholding a district map that was previously found by a lower court to be unconstitutional due to its racially gerrymandered boundaries, the U.S. Supreme Court’s right-wing majority demonstrated on Thursday that it is “a MAGA Court,” according to one advocate for judicial reform.

In a 6-3 decision along partisan lines, with Justice Samuel Alito writing the majority opinion, the court ruled in favor of a South Carolina district map which was drawn by the GOP-controlled state legislature and moved 30,000 Black voters from the state’s 1st District to the 6th District.

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‘Consumers Win’ as Supreme Court Rejects ‘Radical’ Attack on CFPB

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Amid celebrations over the ruling, one legal expert warned, “Don’t confuse ‘SCOTUS slaps down a wackadoodle 5th Circuit decision’ with ‘SCOTUS is more moderate than its critics claim.'”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 5-16-2024 by Common Dreams

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra. Screenshot: CNBC

Legal experts and progressive advocates on Thursday applauded the U.S. Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision to uphold the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding mechanism but also cautioned against praising the far-right justices.

While Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented, fellow right-winger Clarence Thomas penned the opinion in CFPB v. Consumer Financial Services Association of America, joined by the other three conservatives and three liberals—two of whom wrote concurring opinions.

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$8.5 Trillion in Untaxed Assets: Data Shows Why ‘We Need a Billionaire Income Tax’

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“While most Americans predominantly live off the income they earn from a job—income that is taxed all year, every year—the very richest households live lavishly off capital gains that may never be taxed.”

By Jake Johnson. Published 1-4-2024 by Common Dreams

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla. Photo: Daniel Oberhaus/flickr//CC

An analysis released Wednesday shows that in 2022, the wealthiest people in the United States collectively held a “staggering” $8.5 trillion in wealth that is not—and might never be—subject to taxation.

Examining recently released data Federal Reserve data for 2022, Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) found that the roughly 64,000 U.S. households with at least $100 million in wealth—less than 0.05% of the population—controlled more than one in every six dollars of the country’s “unrealized gains,” profits that aren’t taxable until the underlying asset, such as a stock position, is sold.

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In ‘Toothless PR Stunt,’ Supreme Court Publishes Ethics Code With No Enforcement Mechanisms

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“This unenforceable public relations document serves absolutely no purpose other than to permit the media to revert to pretending that our unaccountable and unethical Supreme Court retains legitimacy,” one advocate said.

By Olivia Rosane. Published 11-13-2023 by Common Dreams

Photo: Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States

In the wake of a series of high-profile scandals surrounding the relationship between right-wing justices and billionaires, the U.S. Supreme Court announced on Monday that it had formally adopted a new Code of Conduct.

The 14-page code is based on requirements for lower court judges, and most of the rules it outlines are not new, the court said. Watchdog groups have been widely critical of the new document, which does not stipulate how the conduct it promotes will be enforced, with the Revolving Door Project labeling it a “toothless PR stunt.”

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Supreme Court Could Trigger Hundreds of Billions in Corporate Tax Cuts ‘With the Stroke of Pen’

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A new report warns that huge tax gifts for corporations and “a $340 billion hole in the federal budget” are among the potential consequences of a case SCOTUS is set to hear in December.

By Jake Johnson. Published 9-27-2023 by Common Dreams

Photo: Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States

A Washington-based married couple’s challenge to an obscure provision of the 2017 Republican tax law has the potential to become “the most important tax case in a century,” with far-reaching implications for federal revenues, key social programs, and Congress’ constitutional authority to impose levies on income.

That’s according to a new report released Wednesday by the Roosevelt Institute and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP).

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With Alito’s Billionaire Patron Holding $90 Million in Finance Firms, Watchdog Demands Recusal From CFPB Case

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“Should Justice Alito preside over this case despite his clear conflicts of interest, it would add to the worsening Supreme Court corruption crisis and underscore the urgent need for ethics reform,” said one critic.

By Julia Conley. Published 9-18-2023 by Common Dreams

Samuel-Alito. Screenshot: Conversations with Bill Kristol

Anti-corruption watchdog Accountable.US on Monday said there is a clear need for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself from an upcoming court case regarding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as a new analysis revealed the extent of one of his key associate’s financial interests in the case.

The group released new data showing that hedge fund manager Paul Singer holds at least $90 million in financial firms overseen by the CFPB, which was established in 2011 through the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and has since provided $16 billion in financial relief to defrauded consumers and ordered companies to pay $3.7 billion in penalties.

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Senator Files Ethics Complaint Accusing Alito of Scheme to Thwart Congressional Action

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“Justice Alito was involved in an organized campaign to block congressional action with regard to a matter in which he has a personal stake,” reads the complaint filed by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.

By Jake Johnson. Published 9-5-2023 by Common Dreams

Samuel-Alito. Screenshot: Conversations with Bill Kristol

Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse filed an ethics complaint against Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Tuesday, accusing the right-wing judge of improperly interfering with congressional efforts to reform the scandal-plagued high court.

The complaint points to Alito’s comments in a recent Wall Street Journal interview conducted in part by David Rivkin, an attorney for notorious Federalist Society co-chair Leonard Leo. Rivkin is also representing the plaintiffs in a case that could preemptively ban lawmakers from enacting a wealth tax.

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