Today’s links Red-teaming the SCOTUS code of conduct: Let’s take a look at what it *actually* prohibits. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2003, 2013, 2018, 2022 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading Red-teaming the SCOTUS code of conduct (permalink) Last April, Propublica’s Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski dropped a bombshell: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had been showered in high-ticket “gifts” by billionaire ideologue Harlan Crow, who subsequently benefited from Thomas’s rulings in the court: https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow This was just the beginning: in the coming days and weeks, more and more of Thomas’s corruption came to light, everything from the fact that his mother’s home had been bought by Crow, to the fact that Thomas’s adoptive son went to a fancy private school on Crow’s dime: https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-private-school-tuition-scotus The news was explosive and not merely because of the corruption it revealed in the country’s highest court. The credibility of the court itself was at its lowest ebb in living memory, thanks to the two judges who occupied stolen seats – Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett. One of those judges – Kavanaugh – is a credibly accused rapist. Thomas is also a credibly accused sexual abuser: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/10/01/30-years-after-her-testimony-anita-hill-still-wants-something-from-joe-biden-514884 Then, this illegitimate court went on to deliver a string of upsets to long-settled law, culminating in the Dobbs decision, which triggered state laws that force small children to bear their rapists’ babies: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/09/health/abortion-bans-rape-incest.html That was the context for the Thomas bribery scandal, which was…Pluralistic: Red-teaming the SCOTUS code of conduct (17 Nov 2023)