Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Ethical Violations Can't Be Adjudicated Because He Became A Supreme Court Justice Says Kavanaugh's Buddy

We can't avoid every miscarriage of justice. We can only make them harder to get away with.

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When D.C. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh committed what multiple federal jurists considered a number of violations of the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980 — 83 of them! — during his confirmation hearings, Chief Justice Roberts took these matters seriously and… asked Brett Kavanaugh’s buddy if there might be any need to worry about them. In an absolute shocker, Kavanaugh’s friend — who Kavanaugh mentored through confirmation while Kavanaugh worked in the Bush White House — decided with zero transparency that there are no possible ethical violations because Kavanaugh is on the Supreme Court.

Truly amazing.

It’s well-known that Supreme Court justices are, as members of the only judicial body established by the Constitution as a co-equal branch, free to set their own ethical standards. What wasn’t known until the Tenth Circuit issued its comical ruling yesterday is that this extends to actions taken by judges who are covered by the law if and only if they become associate justices after the fact.

Pretty neat trick.

Fix the Court put it in an uncharacteristic display of emphasis in original:

That Chief Justice Roberts sent the complaints to a circuit led by a judge Kavanaugh vetted while working in the Bush White House made little sense. That the identity of the panel ruling on the complaint was not made public until its order was released is sadly the type of opacity one has come to expect from the third branch.

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In a week where disgraced circuit judges managed to avoid inquiry and come out with their benefits intact, it’s hard to imagine a bigger black eye for the legitimacy of the courts, but the Tenth Circuit offered the now clichéd 2016-2018 catchphrase of “hold my beer” and came out swinging in defense of the man who then chugged one and crushed the can against his head to establish his penis size as equal to his size as a dick.

From Fix the Court again:

Today’s decision underscores the need for the Supreme Court to adopt its own code of conduct or for Congress to write one if the justices cannot be bothered….

Except… Chief Justice Roberts is right to say that Congress can’t get into the business of telling the Supreme Court what its rules should be. While perhaps troubling in some of its specific manifestations, the constitutional independence of the branches of government has its virtues. Congress could, theoretically, cut off the judiciary’s funding until it caved to its will, but this would be exactly how they tried to strip poor, mostly minority children of an education in Kansas. As much as left-leaning authoritarians wish they could install “just the good strongmen,” that’s not how this works. Conservatives don’t blow up norms as often as the liberal media suggests — instead, they hack existing norms until Democrats blow them up in frustration, providing the invitation all vampires need before defiling a home.

Republicans didn’t eliminate the filibuster protection against judicial nominees… Harry Reid did when he accepted Mitch McConnell’s empty promises instead of thinking outside the box and just making the filibuster more politically damaging.

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It may be unsatisfying to say that the Supreme Court needs to grow up and own their own mess, but serving up precedent for the eventual “Idaho Senator shuts down judiciary until black people can’t have wedding cakes” isn’t the answer. Fair enough, it’ll more likely be something facially benign like “Senate cuts off judiciary until they declare affirmative action a 13th Amendment violation” and it’s truly troubling that there are people who view that statement as “benign.”

Sometimes the answer to living in filth forever is to wait until the children clean up their own room. Try and fix it for them once and….

Well, you’re inviting tyranny into your household.


HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.