Clarence Thomas: The Fundraising Face Behind Koch Brothers’ Supreme Court Takeover
“Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events”
Clarence is now set to rule on the Chevron Case which would benefit the Koch Brothers. The case would limit the government’s ability to regulate fossil fuel companies such as Chevron and Koch Industries. Clarence has received luxury vacations, motorhomes, a house for his mom and free tuition for a relative. ProPublica reported how Clarence Thomas has been used as an attraction of Koch Network fundraising events.
Follow the money, gifts, luxury trips between the Koch Network, Leonard Leo and Harlan Crow to Clarence and Virginia Thomas with this relationship map. Click on any icon for details.
Ethically challenged Clarence Thomas
Ethics experts said Thomas’ undisclosed ties to the Koch network could call his impartiality in the case into doubt. This sort of potential conflict is why the judiciary has rules against both political activity and fundraising, they said. “Parties litigating in the court before Justice Thomas don’t know the extent of Thomas’ relationship with the parties on the other side. You have to be pretty cynical to not think that’s a problem.” – James Sample, a Hofstra University law professor who studies judicial ethics.
Billionaires make out like bandits from Supreme Court rulings
“The sprawling Koch political network spent $20 million ahead of the midterm elections to push the Trump tax cuts on top of the $20 million they spent to promote the 2017 Republican tax bill’s passage. The network plans to spend $400 million on candidates and issues this election cycle, up from $250 million in the last one. The immense amounts shelled out by the Koch network to pass and promote the GOP tax law are just drops in the bucket compared with the tax windfall the Koch brothers will reap from the new law. Americans for Tax Fairness estimates that the Kochs and their conglomerate Koch Industries will likely save between $840 million and $1.4 billion in income taxes each year.” – American Prospect
What do they get in return? A return on investment of at least 4,100 percent on the $20 million they spent to pass the law. Who pays for their tax cuts? You do. Because the tax cuts reduce the money the government has for public healthcare, Social Security, veteran’s benefits, education, job training and protecting the environment.
What is the Chevron case all about?
Now billionaires are pushing to have the Republican packed Supreme Court pass another law that makes them even richer at the expense of hard working Americans. Billionaires want to have the Supreme Court stop the government from regulating them! The 1984 case Chevron v. NRDC is important. It said courts should be hesitant to second-guess the agencies’ determinations.
In essence, Chevron is about government agencies’ ability to issue regulations. After a law is enacted, it’s generally up to agencies across the government to make detailed rules putting it into effect. In the years that followed, judges cited Chevron in upholding rules that protect endangered species, speed up the approval process for new cellphone towers and grant benefits to coal miners suffering from black lung.
Undisclosed ties to the Koch network
Ethics experts said Thomas’ undisclosed ties to the Koch network could call his impartiality in the case into doubt. This sort of potential conflict is why the judiciary has rules against both political activity and fundraising, they said. “Parties litigating in the court before Justice Thomas don’t know the extent of Thomas’ relationship with the parties on the other side. You have to be pretty cynical to not think that’s a problem.” – James Sample, a Hofstra University law professor who studies judicial ethics.
Without Chevron, “any place you would need regulation to address a pressing social problem, it’s going to be more costly to get it, harder to implement it and it’s not going to go as far” – Noah Rosenblum, a professor at New York University School of Law. – ProPublica
TakeAway: Demand compromised Supreme Court justices getting gifts from billionaires recuse themselves from cases like the Chevron case that would benefit billionaires. America is not a banana Republic.
Deepak
DemLabs
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Reposted from Democracy Labs with permission.
