Supreme Court Accountability? Has there every been any?

Impeachment of a justice is the same as for any other federal official - for treason, bribery, or any high crimes and misdemeanors (Article 2, Section 4).

Yet we've never, if I am reading right, actually removed a sitting Supreme Court Justice at the national level. We barely pay any attention at all to their activities when they aren't actually ruling.

We say "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely" and we certainly have no problem thinking this is true of our Congress people, of generals, of CEOs, of anyone in the Administration...yet for some inexplicable reason we hardly ever talk about judges in this way...though it's clear that at least on the state level, there are plenty of corrupt judges.

And we have a group of people who are, with 9 of them, given co-equal power to the President of the United states. Who are given this power for LIFE. Who are given this power with very little scrutiny...and who are not elected by the people.

Ok, I'll be a romantic for a moment. Maybe the calling to the supreme court is so special that no one ever thinks of making money or engaging in blatant conflicts of interest again. Maybe getting to wear the black robe is so special that you never think of influence pedalling once you take the oath. Maybe you never get drunk and arrogant with your power. So once these people are appointed we're all supposed to just sit back and accept whatever philosophical decisions they make.

These people are without sex scandals, tax evasion issues, or other income boosting schemes....

So we need to treat them differently. We need to abandon almost any notion of ever removing them...even if they trash everything we believe in, because you JUST DON"T DO THAT TO THE SUPREME COURT.

Or we can ask ourselves "Why not?"

It worries me that there is so little personal examination over this one 1/3 of our Federal Power. I find it astonishing that in a town where every other Federal appointee you throw a rock at you find a felony...we expect an even MORE carefully polite and circumspect examination is enough to vet them...and then further followup appears to be totally abandoned.

I strongly suspect that if we were to put the same effort into examining Scalia's and Thomas' ties to industry, investments, family, and the administration, we'd find every bit as much corruption as we find anywhere else. But for some reason it appears that while we ARE willing to level such charges at the President...at any COngressman...we're remarkably hesitant to do the same with the SCOTUS because that would be politicizing Judges.

But I think the bad news is, THEY ARE ALREADY POLITICIZED. They were bought and paid for years ago. Their friends area all politicians, they all had to do something remarkable to make the kind of friendships that get you elevated to the SCOTUS...yet oddly, most of these people have political pasts rather than academic pasts...we aren't seeing Lawrence Tribe up there are we? Nope we're seeing people who have obviously paid their political piper.

Yet WE shouldn't politicize them? I assert that they are already political thru and thru...and that their robes have created the illusion that they are something other than what they are. And the consequence of this is that they are effectively able to mysteriously "keep up with the Jones" in an amazingly expensive city while living on a fairly modest government paycheck.

In other words, this is the rich, ruling for the rich, being pointed by the rich and powerful, for the needs of the rich and powerful, but we're looking at them and treating them like they are something else. I've seen it happen so many times...I see it happening again now. Alito will be appointed and in 6 months we'll all sit around and gripe because he is shredding the constitution BUT we still won't talk about his personal life as if it were somehow connected with his rulings. We'll hate him and what he votes for and against...but we won't really take him personally to task the way we would a senator because he'll be wearing robes.

I suggest we change this. I suggest we begin to seriously look at the motives and possible enticements behind their actions. And yes it will create an "uglier" atmosphere, because it'll be done to our own (and if they are corrupt then they should be booted too).

But I've had it with defending IDEAS while losing the reality. I want some honesty in all 3 branches of our government. And if that means setting the dogs of federal investigations and prosecutors on all 3 branches of government then so be it. If that means scandal in all three co-equal branches of government so be it. If that means treating all 3 co-equal branches of government, then SO BE IT.

I don't think I'm willing to watch a generation of US constitutional law trashed in practice in order to protect the venear of respectability that has been given to 9 very privilged and very powerful people.

did he talk about the Supreme Court at all? I'm trying to Dl it right now. (yes this is a shameless bump due to all the Gore threads shoving everything else off the page)