Technically there is not a law stating that what they're doing is illegal but the laws in place to prevent SCJs from taking bribes were written vaguely purposely because they wanted to leave it open for future interpretations for future crimes. When writing a law you never know what could happen in 5,10 or 20 years and how crimes are committed evolves. The current laws are basically, you'll know a crime when you see it. The argument is being made that since it's not clear it's not a crime but most other judges could never get away with this kind of behavior. This would be concerning coming from any public official but these are the views of the highest court in the land. Congress has the power to impeach SCJs but unfortunately relying on Congress to do anything has been an ongoing joke for 20+ years.
is this true?
Very much so. They just call them "gifts" from "friends" and that's the end of it.
https://jacobin.com/2023/06/supreme-court-justices-thomas-alito-corruption-wsj
Technically there is not a law stating that what they're doing is illegal but the laws in place to prevent SCJs from taking bribes were written vaguely purposely because they wanted to leave it open for future interpretations for future crimes. When writing a law you never know what could happen in 5,10 or 20 years and how crimes are committed evolves. The current laws are basically, you'll know a crime when you see it. The argument is being made that since it's not clear it's not a crime but most other judges could never get away with this kind of behavior. This would be concerning coming from any public official but these are the views of the highest court in the land. Congress has the power to impeach SCJs but unfortunately relying on Congress to do anything has been an ongoing joke for 20+ years.
Yep