Alito, Thomas, And The False Truism That No One Is Above the Law*
Purchasing access and influence is not a crime for the litigant buyer or jurist seller — so long as the latter is a Supreme Court Justice.
Growing up and even into law school, I had this naïve notion that courts in the United States were sacrosanct, that they were independent of politics and made decisions based on the law and the facts before them. I believed the highest court in the land, of necessity, set the highest standards of integrity and led by example.
I also believed, unreasonably it turns out, that purchasing access and influence was a crime for both the litigant buyer and jurist seller.
Justice Scalia burst that bubble for me, and Justices Thomas and Alito have carried on that legacy in ways that cannot be measured, in part because they have violated mandatory disclosure laws along with nearly every ethical canon the Chief Justice refuses to implement.
Two weeks ago I appeared in federal court on behalf of a client who had been found guilty of criminal contempt for violating a court order and was scheduled for sentencing. The U.S. Attorney charged the violation under section 18…