118th United States Congress Thread, Pt. 4

(The Guardian) House Democrat proposes censuring supreme court justice Alito after reports of flag connected to Trump election lies
It has been nearly a week since the New York Times broke the news that a flag associated with Donald Trump’s baseless fraud claims about the 2020 election flew outside the house of the conservative supreme court justice Samuel Alito, and Democrats appear to be gearing up to respond. Congressman Steve Cohen has proposed censuring Alito, while yesterday Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s Democratic leader, said flying the flag “casts some doubt on [his] impartiality”, and added he would be looking for ways to respond. Last year, Democrats convened the Senate judiciary committee to try to build support for legislation requiring the court to impose an enforceable code of ethics following earlier reports of ties between conservative justices and wealthy parties with interests before the court. But that legislation went nowhere in the face of Republican opposition, and there is no sign of that calculus changing today. Meanwhile, the conservative-dominated court is considering cases whose outcomes could weigh on the November presidential election, including Trump’s bid for immunity from charges related to his attempt to stop Joe Biden from taking office. We’ll let you know if Democrats elaborate on their next steps today.

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Steve Cohen, a Democratic congressman, has introduced a resolution to censure Samuel Alito over the flag flown outside his house that was associated with Donald Trump’s baseless election fraud claims.

The conservative supreme court justice has said the banner was raised after his wife got into a dispute with their neighbor. Cohen’s resolution demands Alito recuse himself from considering cases dealing with the January 6 insurrection or 2020 election.

It also censures him “for knowingly violating the federal recusal statute and binding ethics standards and calling the impartiality of the supreme court of the United States into question by continuing to participate in cases in which his prior public conduct could be reasonably interpreted to demonstrate bias”.

In a statement, Cohen, of Tennessee, accused Alito of showing support for those who attacked the Capitol: Beyond poor judgment, Justice Alito’s misuse of the American flag is a knowing and shameless demonstration of his political bias. He literally flew a flag in front of his house showing the world he supported the January 6th insurrectionists. What’s more, he continues to participate in litigation directly related to the 2020 election and the insurrection, in direct violation of the federal recusal statute and the supreme court’s own ethics rules.

Republicans control the House, and it is unlikely they will allow Cohen’s resolution to pass.

(The Guardian) Top Senate Republican suggests Democratic lawmakers should face 'discipline' for pressuring court
As Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell played a major role in creating the conservative supermajority on the supreme court, by confirming Donald Trump’s rightwing justices and blocking Barack Obama from appointing a liberal judge in 2016.

Republicans are now in the minority in the Senate, but McConnell still leads the party, and he is not happy with Democratic senators who have called for Samuel Alito to recuse himself from cases concerning the 2020 election, or for the chief justice, John Roberts, to sit down for a meeting to discuss the court’s ethics.

In a speech on the chamber’s floor yesterday, McConnell warned that two of the Democratic senators calling for the court to (so far unsuccessfully) act, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, could face “discipline” because they are lawyers who have been admitted to the supreme court’s bar.

Here’s more from McConnell: Three of our colleagues have taken it upon themselves to write to the chief justice and demand Justice Alito’s recusal in cases. One went so far as to tell the chief that he should strip Justices Alito and Thomas of the ability to write majority opinions unless they recuse from the cases liberals don’t want them hearing.

This goes beyond the standard disgraceful bullying my Democratic colleagues have perfected. Recusal is a judicial act.

These senators are telling the chief justice, privately, to change the course of pending litigation. This is known as ex parte communication and it is frowned upon by the ABA’s Model Code of Judicial Conduct.

This matters because at least two of these colleagues of ours, the junior senator from Rhode Island and the senior senator from Connecticut, seem to be members of the supreme court bar. If so, they are, therefore, potentially engaged in unethical professional conduct before the court.

They may be under the mistaken impression that their persistent attempts to threaten the federal courts are a permissible use of their legislative office. But they are officers of the court and bound by a different set of rules than a mere senator. These rules provide for discipline against those who engage in ‘conduct unbecoming’ an officer of the court.

I might suggest to our colleagues that unethical ex parte communications seeking to change the course of pending litigation is such conduct. And that the court should take any remedial action it feels to be appropriate.

(The Guardian) House oversight chair James Comer said Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict is a “a step toward accountability,” but added that he still wants further investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings.

In a statement, Comer celebrated the verdict and called on the Department of Justice to investigate the “Bidens’ corrupt influence peddling schemes”. -- Hunter Biden’s sweetheart plea deal was smoked out after scrutiny by a federal judge. Today’s verdict is a step toward accountability but until the Department of Justice investigates everyone involved in the Bidens’ corrupt influence peddling schemes that generated over $18 million in foreign payments to the Biden family, it will be clear department officials continue to cover for the Big Guy, Joe Biden.

Comer, a US representative from Kentucky, has been investigating the Biden family for 18 months and has yet to reveal any evidence of financial misdeeds or other crimes. In fact, Comer’s investigation into Joe Biden was criticized by the Congressional Integrity Project, a watchdog group, for “[overhyping] allegations of bribery and corruption against Biden without once producing hard evidence,” the Guardian’s David Smith reported.

(The Guardian) The House speaker, Mike Johnson, criticized Joe Biden’s immigration policies, telling reporters on Wednesday:

The Biden border catastrophe continues in spite of his window dressing of the executive order.

Johnson was referring to Biden’s latest executive order that limits asylum seekers from crossing the US-Mexico border.

He added: Nothing’s changed, of course. In fact, many have argued that this increased the incentives for people to try to come and, you know, avail themselves of the welcome mat that the Biden administration has put forward.

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Although more Americans support than oppose Joe Biden’s latest immigration executive order, public opinion on whether the order was tough on illegal immigration remains mixed, according to a new Monmouth University poll.

According to the poll, 40% of Americans are in favor of Biden’s executive order while 27% disapprove – and 33% of Americans have no opinion.

The report also found that support is evenly spread across all partisan groups – 44% of Republicans, 40% of Democrats and 38% of independents are in favor. Republicans (29%) and independents (30%) are slightly more likely than Democrats (22%) to oppose this move.

(The Guardian) The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, has issued a statement declaring that Republicans will win the White House, Senate and House of Representatives after he and other party members hosted Donald Trump.

Johnson said that Trump brought “an extraordinary amount of energy and excitement and enthusiasm” during the morning meeting.

Johnson said: “We believe we are going to win back the White House, and the Senate, and grow the House majority, and when we do that, we will not waste a moment.”

The House speaker promised an “aggressive agenda” with the new Congress in January. So far, such an agenda could look like pushing far-right legislation around immigration, gun control and other policies.

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The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, said that the Trump meeting was “entirely positive”, Punchbowl News reported.

McConnell specified that he and Trump “got a chance to talk”, adding that their meeting was policy focused.

The meeting between McConnell and Trump is the first time the two have spoken since December 2020.