Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Dick Durbin, 78, slammed 68-year-old Chief Justice John Roberts for not taking up ethical lapse on the High Court with conservative Associate justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito accepting trips from billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow. Durbin doesn’t know whether accepting fringe benefits from the GOP donor constitutes an ethical breach, any more than a U.S. senator taking the same offers from GOP donors. Durbin has zero proof that Crow expected favorable rulings from Alito and Thomas, only that they took free trips. Whatever goes on in the Supreme Court with only nine justices, you can only imagine what goes on the U.S. Senate with over 10 times the number of possible recipients. Durbin acts like only the Supreme Court exhibits alleged ethical lapses when they go on daily in the House and Senate.
Durbin found nothing wrong with the Department of Justice and FBI investigating 77-year-old former President Donald Trump for alleged ties to the Kremlin. Durbin looked the other way when former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton paid to have 33,000 emails purged from her private server, showing quid-pro-quo transactions while Secretary of State. Durbin knew all about Hillary’s fake Steele dossier that was passed on to the CIA and FBI to open counterintelligence investigations into Trump and his 2016 campaign. Durbin thought nothing of turning fake intel to the New York Times and Washington Post to write unending stories about Trump’s alleged ties to the Kremlin. Durbin had no problem letting the Department of Justice and FBI investigate Trump knowing that the DOJ and FBI had no real probable cause, using law government agencies for political purposes.
Where’s the ethics behind Durbin’s concerns about the Supreme Court when he can’t get his own, or his Democrat colleagues, act together? “I’m sorry to see Chief Justice Roberts end the term without taking action on the ethical issues plaguing the Court—all while the Court hand down decisions that dismantled longstanding precedents and the progress our country has made over generations,” Durbin said, unable to control his Democrat-biased politics. Durbin reveals for all to see he can’t separate his Democrat political agenda from whatever happened with Alito and Thomas. No one has determined yet whether a Supreme Court justice accepting gifts is unethical at all. Durbin says the conservative majority dismantled “longstanding precedents,” when that’s the prerogative of majority rule. How is it unethical to the High Court to rule for liberals or conservatives?
Durbin assumes that Roe v. Wade would stay in perpetuity as settled U.S. law, when things change, new cases come up, with arguments made to the justices, deciding how to vote on new cases coming before the High Court. Durbin thinks as a Democrat his views are the correct ones, not thinking that there are other ways of thinking. Durbin wants Supreme Court precedents that only advance a Democrat agenda. What is a precedent for Biden deciding by fiat to discharge $400 billion in student debt? Student borrowers signed contracts obligating them to repay loans. Why should financial institutions take losses because Biden and Durbin want give-a-ways for their progressive caucus? Pointing fingers at the Supreme Court for ethical violations makes good New York Times headline but is a real smoke screen for the kinds to abuses going on by Democrats in the House and Senate.
Durban and his House Democrat colleagues need to stop whining about Supreme Court rulings trying to tie them to ethical breaches and work hard to keep a Democrat president in the White House. With Biden at the helm, the country has turned into a slow-moving train wreck with endless foreign wars sapping the U.S. Treasury, driving inflation and robbing American taxpayers of their savings. Durbin has a lot of nerve pointing fingers at the Supreme Court when the Democrat deep state used the nation’s most coveted institutions to persecute Trump politically. Durbin knew what happened to Trump in 2016 and he certainly knows what Special Prosecutor Jack Smith is doing to Trump now. Why should any America trust that the DOJ and FBI has not committed more egregious abuses of U.S. institutions for purely political purposes in the latest charges against the former president.
Before Durbin points fingers at Chief Justice John Roberts and the Supreme Court he needs to clean his own Democrat house in the U.S. Senate. Talking about settled U.S. law is no specialty of Durbin when he knows that the Supreme Court rules on case before the High Court regardless of the past. Durbin doesn’t like rulings that disagree with his progressive agenda whether on abortion, the border, affirmative action or on student debt. Durban can’t weponize his oversight capacity on the ethics committee because he doesn’t like the Supreme Courts conservative rulings. Durbin would be the first to urge Biden to pack the court with Democrats, all because he cares nothing about the Constitution only political power. Democrats should put their house in order before blaming the Supreme Court every time they don’t like a particular ruling. Durbin should refrain from weaponizing the Senate Ethics Committee.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
