Political Bribery: The Influence of Wealth and Power on Supreme Court Decisions

[minapisan]

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the most powerful and influential men in the United States, has been involved in several ethical scandals, including bribery and manipulation over decisions. Receiving over three dozen destination vacations, real estate properties, and his son's private school tuition as bribes from billionaires, there is much to question about the context of Thomas' supreme court decisions. 

Every day, more and more information continues to come out about his ethics scandals. 

David Sokol, Harlan Crow, Paul Novelly, and Wayne Huizenga are some known billionaires from whom Thomas is known to have accepted bribes. 

More, however, are suspected of having done so, considering Thomas' social circle(s). 

Alongside these bribes, Thomas' wife, Ginni Thomas, is suspected of having influenced several of his supreme court decisions, admitting to helping several groups submit briefs before the Supreme Court. All these groups are far right; one was even involved in the recent affirmative action case. 

What will happen to Thomas?

Thomas ' credibility has already been undermined after and since this information has come out to the public. Politicians, community leaders, and concerned citizens have spoken out against Thomas. 

Legally, however, it is unlikely that Thomas will be impeached, as Supreme Court justices are challenging to prosecute. 

Is this anything new?

In the past, only one of the many Supreme Court justices who have been involved in bribery scandals. In fact, several Supreme Court Justices have openly accepted bribes, including Antonin Scalia, Stephen Breyer, and Neil Gorsuch. 

This means that the highest court of the United States is even more corrupt than we thought, are we surprised though? Maybe partially. 

[sahanadasgupta]

It's been very clear for a while that some of the Supreme Court justices have often been accepting bribes and been exposed to lobbying from multiple billionaires or people with political influence. We've seen this multiple times in the past as well, with Justice Alito's leaking of the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby decision. The Supreme Court has an incredible amount of power and influence and is constantly entrenched in party politics, so if someone told me that it was corrupt I wouldn't be surprised at all. 

[minapisan]

I agree with you in a historical sense. There is no doubt that we have seen patterns of corruption in the justice system/judiciary system. However, I think we must remember that the Supreme Court has an incredible amount of power and influence as a system that, although biased, was created with the goal to uphold the principles of impartiality. When we see justices accepting bribes or being influenced by special interests, it undermines the public's trust in the judiciary and threatens the rule of law.

That is why these instances should and must elicit shock and reaction. We need to be shocked and outraged when we see our highest court being corrupted by special interests. This shock and outrage is necessary in order to help to generate public support for change, rather than acceptance of corruption as a reality.

Thank you for reading my article, and thank you for providing your perspective!

[Aly18]

In truth, it is not only the justice system in the USA that has corruption but the entirety of the political, legal and even educational system have a level of corruption. This can be seen in the agenda being pushed. Can we say that the corruption is recent, no it is not.  It is more evident now with the increase in social media and youths taking the initiative to look for information for themselves instead of the main stream media ( another corrupt entity in the US). 

The question begs is who do you believe? who is telling the truth? I have no doubt that many things taking place in the USA are all for an agenda that benefits the higher-ups in that country while the little man suffers continually.

Do I agree with corruption, no I don't, however, I cannot disagree with some of the rulings of supreme court judges. We are living in a time when we should be more wise and more intelligent, and his final decision on affirmative action I support 100%, as black we have the intelligence to make it without the color of out skin; we don't have the drive because we lack class or because we already believe so much in hand me out. 

A former Prime Minister made a statement about the people in his country about them having a "breadfruit mentality", he wasn't wrong and I can go one stop further, black people operate the very way a breadfruit tree does and we still have ourselves lack up in mental slavery and that needs to stop. 

Corruption takes place because of the mentality of many people, and unfortunately, if the way we think doesn't improve corruption will only get worse within each of the systems in the USA, it actually worst.