• RedstoneValley@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    “Is a $100 Dunkin’ Donuts gift card for a trash collector wrongful?” wrote Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the court’s opinion. “What about a $200 Nike gift card for a county commissioner who voted to fund new school athletic facilities? Could students take their college professor out to Chipotle for an end-of-term celebration?”

    In my country government employees (including teachers) can’t legally accept gifts above €10 in value. All of these examples would be illegal here. Sounds petty, but anti-corruption laws are pretty strict for a reason.

    • qarbone@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      He gave hypotheticals with very clear and pretty easy answers. The fact that he posed those as stumbling blocks means he shouldn’t be deliberating on anything more significant than what he should have for lunch.

    • cybersandwich@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Federal ethics guidelines are $20 of value and it can’t be a cash equivalent (gift card).

      These clowns are so out of touch.

      • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Actually, they are in touch. In touch with fascism. Won’t be long now. Soon enough we get to spend the next four years guessing. “Will there be a 2028 election?” Don’t you worry, there will be an, “election.” Just like Russia has an election. Sorry guys, it’s all but over. I hoped you liked having rights. Thank God I don’t have fucking children.

    • cultsuperstar@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Financial institutions have a TON of regulations against this sort of thing. You can’t accept gifts, you can’t serve on a board if there’s a conflict of interest, you can’t take politicians out for dinner, etc. This is seriously fucked up. Shit is going to get even more corrupt, but now they don’t have to hide it.

  • UnpopularCrow@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    The fact that the President, who maybe some time in distant memory, didn’t choose judges based along political lines, chooses the Supreme Court judges seems crazy to me.

    Why aren’t the best judges and lawyers getting together and electing them? I’m a scientist by trade, so I’m more use to a peer reviewed system. Nonetheless, I find it maddening that our election cycle realistically choses the highest court in America rather than those most equipped to make that decision. Who gives a fuck what the president thinks should be the next Supreme Court justice? I’d rather hear from the experts of the field choose who it is.

    • asteriskeverything@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      To actually explain why, I think it’s because the theory is our president and politicians are supposed to be actually representing the people and have their saftey, best interest, and goals and/or morals in mind first and foremost.

      Damn I can see how that sounded perfect forever ago. Wonder which of our proposed solutions to current problems would have similar unexpected consequences, and I wonder what those would look like.

      Sorry if none of this made sense or was coherent to anyone. Don’t try to reread it I’m just high

      • BossDj@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Makes sense and sounds so nice

        We locally choose our very best to go represent our interests. And it would be in our interest to have an experienced, educated, honest judge. So one would think that our politician is spending time researching, discussing, and vetting along with the other best minds from around the country.

        But we never get to choose our best. Or at least our best is outnumbered and voiceless.

    • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
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      4 months ago

      Seems reasonable, but Republicans would have spent decades capturing that system and we’d end up in a similarly bad position. The problem is conservatives have shit ideas and want them to be law. Unless we fix that, any system will be corrupted.

  • Allonzee@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    All that’s left are tears at the reality, or laughter at the gallows absurdity of the reality.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    4 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    On Thursday, in their ruling halting the Biden administration’s plan to limit ozone pollution from drifting into other states, Supreme Court justices repeatedly, accidentally referenced “nitrous oxide” — a.k.a.

    The decisions, taken together, offer a perfect representation of the current Supreme Court: Our country is being led by an all-powerful, undemocratic institution that is, in many ways, a complete joke — in addition to being simply corrupt.

    Americans, broadly-speaking, appear to recognize the court isn’t simply calling balls and strikes, as Chief Justice John Roberts once pledged to do.

    “Is a $100 Dunkin’ Donuts gift card for a trash collector wrongful?” wrote Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the court’s opinion.

    As Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted in her dissent, the corruption statute “was not designed to apply to teachers accepting fruit baskets, soccer coaches getting gift cards, or newspaper delivery guys who get a tip at Christmas.”

    Justices haven’t issued their ruling yet on former President Donald Trump’s claims to an expansive, perpetual immunity shield from prosecution.


    The original article contains 810 words, the summary contains 166 words. Saved 80%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!