Are the calls for his resignation . I will speak live with congresswoman some lee. Then the gops broken priorities, instead of focusing on the looming Government Shutdown, the erosion of our democracy, talking about John Fetterman in shorts, seriously. And two of the worlds most influential men are pushing the world on this good evening, im mehdi hasan. One of the main reasons americans are so fed up with washington d. C. , so distrustful about, government so angry about the state of our public life, is because so many of our politicians on both sides of the political divide seek to be bought and paid for by billionaires, and by big corporations, and by dark money groups. This winter Robert Menendez democrat of new jersey was accused of being bought and paid for by the Egyptian Government who was indicted by the doj on friday, on corruption and bribery charges that he denies. Now lets be clear, corruption is a huge issue for the voters. It is a cancer in our system of government. What happens when it is not an elected politician who is bought and paid for a person you can vote out of office, what happens if it is a Supreme Court justice with a lifetime gig on the highest bench in the land whos accused of being bought and paid for. Yes im of course referring to Clarence Thomas, darling of the conservative movement. A man who according to propublica reporting from this, year accepted luxury chips from republican Megadonor Nfc harlan crow, including International Travel in his private jet, and his superyacht. Not just on mr. Benefited from the billionaires generosity, the justices mother currently lives rent free in a home crow bought from the family. Crow also reportedly paid private boarding School Tuition for thomass grand nephew but the latest Propublica Bombshell piece on thomas which dropped on friday, maybe the most damning, the most shocking, the most outrageous of them all. According to the new report, while on the, bench he devoted a yearlong friendship with Libertarian Billionaire Brothers Charles and the late david koch. Propublica had the details on how the for the sprawling Political Organization the koch network. With attending at least to koch donor a vent over the years. He was brought in to speak with the hopes thats us access to a sitting justices would encourage donations. Of course, thomas failed to report any of this on his annual disclosure forms. To be clear, this time, the justice stands accused not just of accepting gifts worth tens of thousands, Hundreds Of Thousands of dollars from right wing billionaires, but of helping Raise Hundreds of thousands of dollars for rightwing billionaires. It is the kind of conduct that is strictly prohibited from most judges in this country. According to the code of conduct for the United States judges, Lower Court Judges are not permitted to, quote, personally participate in fundraising activities, solicit funds for any organization, or use or permit the use of the prestige and Judicial Office for that purpose. Things get even worse for Justice Thomas when you take a look at some of the cases the court has taken up while his friendship with the koch bloom. Back in 2021, the Supreme Court heard arguments of which centered around californias requirement to taxexempt sureties provide the state with the identities of the top financial donors in an effort to prevent charitable fraud. Opponents argued that such information was a violation of the first amendment. The case was brought by two conservative organizations. New thomas more law, promote Americas Christian Airtight and the aforementioned americans for prosperity foundation. A rightwing Advocacy Group closely associated with them other than you guessed it, the koch brothers. In a 63 decision, the courts right wing majority including cost sided with the two conservative organizations and give wealthy donors like the koch far more ability to influence american politics and secret. But if you think that is, but it gets even worse. Lets go back to 2005 when the court handed a decision known as brand x. And as far as we know he developed that friendship with the billionaire brothers. And that case they sided with the federal communications. Agreement thats decision to not regulate broadband cable providers. It wasnt really a surprise. Four years that showed deference to federal Agency Expertise under the Chevron Deference document. In that Majority Opinion authored by thomas the justice wrote that the fcc was in a far better position to address these questions and we are. And then 15 years later, we now know they have spent years rubbing elbows with the koch brothers. Both fierce opponents of the chevron doctrine. He rejected his previous opinion. In 2020 in the United States, thomas called to reconsider writing that quote its never too late to surrender a better considered position. Was it better considered or better for the coax and between 2005 and 2020. Correlation isnt, causation but as the saying goes. If some thing as a big hint. Thats a big thing of ethics rules. To bind out you just read besides the Supreme Court to avoid the perception that neutral judges are doing the bidding of the rich and powerful. Justice thomas knows that he does here is he delivering a lecture at notre dame in 2021. I think the media makes it sound as though you are just always going right to your personal preference. If they think youre antiabortion or something they think thats the whale always come out. That you for this before that. They think you become like a politician i think thats a problem. Youre gonna jeopardize any faith in the legal institutions. If Justice Thomas does want to be treated like a politician, he should stop acting like. One every day on people to assume he is going with his personal preferences maybe he should let his personal life crossing his professional life. If he doesnt want to jeopardize peoples faith in our legal institutional Supreme Court. Maybe he should resign his seat. Or recuse himself from a major and very consequential case it is about to come before the court. Justice is set which could transform Government Regulation as we know. It the case that has a dispute between Biden Administration and commercial Fishing Companies explicitly asks whether the court should overrule chevron. At this farright cortez but manys expect it will end overall doctrine it could bring about legal and administrative chaos. With a stroke of a pen a group of unelected judges could scale back its ability to implement policy on anything from the environment to drag regulation. Rightwing billionaires are lavishing gifts, favors Luxury Vacations on a rightwing Supreme Court justice. Those rightwing billionaires have an agenda to change the way that regulation works in america. And that Supreme Court justices just coincidentally by chance changing his views and delivering opinions right in line with those billionaires agendas. I would argue its the kind of corruption that we havent seen. American public life, changed our economy in a better way. So, what are we going to do about . What are we going to do to protect the democracy in this country from a rogue reactionary billionaire back Supreme Court. Lets discuss. Senior editor site covers. Associate professor of Political Science at 40 university. Public scholars at the city of new york. Thank you both for joining me. How damning are these new accusations against Justice Thomas. How does this stack up against all the other thomas bombshells that we have seen over the past few months. I think this is the most extraordinary and damning scandal so far. As you said it really helps Connect The Dots and answer some Big Questions that we have had about thomas for sometime. So Justice Thomas loves to say that he doesnt evolve. He is steady as a rock and never changes his mind. The constitution doesnt change. Theres been one anomaly through his presence of the last few years which is the question of Chevron Deference. I know it sounds technical but it really does affect billions of dollars in our economy every federal major decisions. Thomas flipped from believing that differences out to executive agencies to staunchly opposing it and that happened while he was piling around louviers helping them fundraise for Political Machine that then appeared before the court asking them to change Doctrine Ways that Clarence Thomas suddenly approves up. So i think the fact that you can now connect these dots really does raise alarms that this justice is responding to the desires of his ultra wealthy friends and changing his jurisprudence to fit in with what his Social Network approves of. Again we cant prevent those direct causation here but we know that because of the intense lobbying efforts of the coax. Every incentive of his life began to run to overturning chevron. Its funny we cant prove causation partly because we cant ask Claire Thomas partly because he refuses to turn up and take any questions from elected representatives. Thomas has stated that as his jurisprudence is rooted exclusively in his own views of the constitution in the law like based on other factors like his personal lifers friendships. How does a fair minded observer then explain his evolution over the years like an issue on the chevron doctor. Which is happened while hes piling around the coax and gently need to see him before an elected body answer some questions about this. There may not be causation but theres definitely correlation. I mean we dont have a long precedent for these types of things weve only had one supreme justice impeached. Thats up to the house to do so and we know right now if they are controlled by the republicans there is no stomach for this. And then the really thorough layout that you gave the one thing i think is missing is the role of ginni thomas we know that she is also very strong hand in facilitating this relationships in the ways that weve never seen before for a Supreme Court justice in his wife to do so. I should point out that we put out a picture with one of the kochs. Ken burns who is head to distance himself from that picture which i found him using. In response to the latest reporting. Its the bright raimondo chevron case. In the upcoming Supreme Court term. I think recusal is a very weak source. Should this be grounds of resignation for that senator . Certainly one added to all the scandals that have been piling up for Justice Thomas over the last few months. But i find it difficult to believe that the Senate Democrat take this as seriously as they sometimes claim on tv. You know they have lined up to continue to appropriate the hundred 50 million to the Supreme Court with no strings attached. Even though congress has every prerogative to say that we are going to condition some or all this money on you adopting an ethics code. We are creating enforcement method. Congress couldve said we need you to adopt an ethics code that you would actually abide by before we give you this massive pot of money. It did no such thing and instead were just getting a flurry of letters between Senate Democrats sam alito. It even doesnt amount to much in my book. It suggests to me that theres a lot of political theater here not a lot of action. And of course, christina this is bigger than just one justice. Earlier this year he excess alito that if you are a conservative on the court, you have your billionaire benefactor. We would stand to benefit if the court rules against the Consumer Financial and where the democrats on this . Where the attempts to reform the court. Bring in the ethics code, put strings on money. Theyre ice expand and rebounds the court. Joe biden, nancy pelosi both said theyre against. The past justices have been based on norms in that law. We assume that people do the right thing and weve seen time and time again that the Republican Party and these rightwing justices have zero shame. So we cant shame them into doing the right thing therefore we need to use the powers of congress to make them do the right thing. Democrats seem weak mouth when it comes to these things. There are the majority slim as it may be they need to set a precedent because each year in each justice things get a little more gracious a little more bold in a little more flagrant. Once the horse has left the barn its very difficult to put it back in. Indeed it is thank you for your analysis we appreciate it. Let us continue this conversation with Democratic Summerlea of pennsylvania. Shes been outspoken advocate for Ethics Reform of the high court. Thanks for joining us on the show tonight. What do you make of this new reporting from poll republican. Clarence thomas literally fundraising for rightwing organizational sitting on the bench. How dangerous is it for a sitting u. S. Supreme Court Justice to play politician. . The ign listening to what you said youre the nail on the head. This is flagrant its not runofthemill crafton its corruption that we can directly connect to harms that millions of people have experienced. I think we often talk about these things and legal terms in terms of politics. But we forget to talk about them in terms of the people that are actually harmed. And we think about the gifts that thomas. I sitting justice leading fundraiser rubbing the draw of a fundraiser or billionaires that have business before the court. That Business Doing harm to many people. Thats a trend that were seeing. I see not which is Justice Thomas we see with kavanaugh and alabama. We see it with these landmark cases where we have lost the right to abortion care. We have lost Affirmative Action for black and brown people. We see the erosion of lgbtq lots. There are ties between this and its why we have to be very serious about taking action and not just talking about this. But helping American People understand that its not just about the legitimacy of the court its about the future of our country and our democracy and about our safety. So you are very outspoken or making noise on the show tonight. Ive seen some of your social media posts. Why are democrats and congress across the border making more noise about the ethical crisis on our Supreme Court. Pence promising more substantive reports. Theyve hit record lows. Wouldnt a winning message for House Democrats and your leader Hakeem Jeffries in the next election be give us back the House Majority we will fix this. We like to hope that but thats a twofold problem. Im here with you right now to talk about this and so many of us recognize how important this is but when we see issues like this its almost sometimes page to this is not front page news like it needs to be these are cases of corruption that we are seeing and its getting less attention than John Fettermans outfit. We need the media we need the Democratic Party we need every one of influence in our country to talk about this with the seriousness that its owed and i think sometimes political people can see its easier to talk about other issues we need to make sure that our medias giving air to. It that our donor bases giving space for democrats to talk about this because whether or not its politically the right or wrong thing to do for democracy sake, we have to do it its sometimes front page news but it isnt stanaford page because Democratic Leaders arent interested in the story so they have an excuse to move on. I wish we heard more from the president and Senate Majority and others. In terms of democratic silence lets move on to another big story this week related to corruption and a violation of ethics. Robert menendez of new jersey was indicted by the Doj On Corruption charges he denies it but so far only one democratic senator has called on him here is with the number two democrat in the Senate Dick Durbin had to say about the calls for menendez to resign have a li