Lobbyists more sacred than citizens for Scalia and Thomas?

Group: Supreme Court Justices ‘Participated in Political Strategy Sessions’ Before Citizens United 


I have not been impressed with either Cisco or Pancho,  Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas for a longer time ... even prior to their unconstitutional interference in our electoral process that resulted in placing someone who lost the presidential election in office.

Scalia's after-the-fact justifications have repeatedly and grossly fallen short, despite their confident arrogance in terms of his pretended "strict" view of the Constitution. Thomas, on the other hand has been little more than a tag-a-long sidekick to the more celebrated and respected conservative court colleagues.

Now it seems that Cisco and Pancho have been playing around with the wrong crowd at the same time they have been pretending to strictly uphold wise Constitutional concepts.

The entire Citizens United decision was bogus from the get go and effected solely based on a majority defined by partisan political values, not to mention obvious lobbied funding.

Citizens United essentially supports the idea of a corporation as a person with the same legal rights that I as an American citizen have. In reality the ruling supports the practice that a corporate "person" having access to massive financial resources, is not comparable one-to-one with little old me with my access to severely limited financial resources.

Lobbying equality on the part of greedy corporate "persons" and vulnerable individual human citizen persons in the United States of America would be a laugher if it wasn't so tragic.

The ruling was bogus and I'm  wishing Common Cause all the success in the world.

On the first anniversary of the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United, which overturned nearly a century of restrictions on campaign spending, a progressive group has asked the Department of Justice to look into "conflicts of interest" two justices may have had when issuing the ruling.

In a petition to be sent to the department this week, Common Cause will argue that Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas should have recused themselves from the campaign finance decision because of their involvement with Koch Industries, a corporation run by two conservative activists who many say directly benefited fromCitizens United.

"It appears both justices have participated in political strategy sessions, perhaps while the case was pending, with corporate leaders whose political aims were advanced by the decision," the letter alleges, as quoted at Politico.

The group will urge the department to disqualify Scalia and Thomas from the ruling. If that were to happen, the Supreme Court could vacate the ruling, effectively returning the campaign finance restrictions that existed until 2010. But, as Common Cause itself admits, the odds are against it.

And how about an accurate second opinion on the Citizens United Supreme Court Majority Voters?

Justices Alito, Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia and Thomas

Charges: Their majority opinion in Citizens United v. FEC was the worst decision since Scalia instituted SCOTUS Hot Pants Fridays.

In lifting a century-long restriction on corporate campaign spending, the Justices flouted a firmly-ingrained precedent and finally provided examples of the nefarious and mythical “Activist Judge.”

The original case dealt with the very narrow issue of whether Citizen’s hit-piece/documentary Hillary: The Movie was “electioneering communication” under McCain-Feingold. A district court panel ruled that it was and, hence, could be regulated. Citizens appealed, and the Roberts court took it upon itself to hear the case and inexplicably broaden its scope into a corporate free-speech issue.

This is the very definition of “legislating from the bench” and ensures our elections will be dominated by well-funded Swift Boating for the foreseeable future. If democracy was an experiment, this case blew up the lab. - Murphy, The Beast Blog

More details in the Common Cause  filed with the DOJ

The letter refocuses attention on a series of investigations conducted by ThinkProgress about the Supreme Court’s right flank — Justices Samuel Alito, Thomas, and Scalia — and their relationship with the corporate right:

– In November, ThinkProgress interviewed Justice Alito as he entered the annual fundraising gala for the American Spectator, attended by then-RNC Chairman Michael Steele and top Republican donors. Alito told us that his attendance to the fundraiser was “not important.” However, as we noted, Alito was the main draw for donors when he headlined the same event in 2008. The American Spectator is nominally a magazine; in the 90s, it served as a slush fund for wealthy donors to pay opponents of President Clinton, and recently, it organized a lobby group called the “Conservative Action Project” to orchestrate opposition to President Obama.
– In 2009, while the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding the Citizens Unitedcase, Justice Thomas was featured at the annual fundraiser for the Heritage Foundation — and sat at a table for donors with investment banker Thomas Saunders and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). After the Citizens United decision, Heritage created a new nonprofit called “Heritage Action” to run attack ads against Democrats.
– In 2009, while the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding the Citizens Unitedcase, Justice Alito headlined a fundraiser for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute(ISI) — the same corporate front that funded the rise of Republican dirty trickster James O’Keefe and anti-masturbation activist Christine O’Donnell. According to the sponsorship levels for the event, Alito helped ISI raise $70,000 or more from law firms like Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, LLP. ISI is run partially by lobbyist James Burnley, who also is on the board of FreedomWorks.

– Last year, Justice Thomas helped headline a fundraiser for the National Association of Broadcasters, a lobby group representing News Corp, Cox Media Group, and other media companies. The event raised hundreds of thousands for NAB’s charity from a host of corporate sponsors, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, PhRMA, and CBS Corp.