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Trump Never Intended To Be Just

Trump Never Intended To Be Just

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White House aspirants sign on to Supreme Court ethics bill

The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumFeb 11, 2019
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
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Four of the five Democratic senators already running for president have signed on to a bill requiring the Supreme Court to adopt a code of ethics.

The nine justices are not bound by the code of conduct that governs all other federal judges.

Members of the high court have successfully resisted legislation, pushed in every Congress since the early 1970s, mandating a Supreme Court code of conduct. The justices argue such legislation would be an improper meddling in the separation of powers, pointing out that the Constitution allows the justices to serve so long as they exhibit "good behavior" or face possible impeachment by the House and removal by the Senate for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."

A dozen Democrats (but no Republicans) have signed on to this year's version of the ethics bill, including 2020 presidential aspirants Kamala Harris of California, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has not yet said definitively if he will run again, is also a co-sponsor. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who formally launched her candidacy over the weekend, is not.


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White marble exterior of the United States Capitol, often called the Capitol Building, is the home of the United States Congress and the seat of the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government

This week's congressional agenda includes anti-fraud legislation, ICE funding, FISA Section 702 renewal debates, and major committee hearings.

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Fraud, Funding, and FISA

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This week in the House is Fraud Week based on the large number of bills likely to receive a vote that in some way are intended to decrease or eliminate many different kinds of fraud. Example bills up for a vote include:

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Florida's new congressional map, the Supreme Court's Callais decision, and challenges to voting rights protections raise urgent questions about redistricting, representation, and democratic accountability.

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Florida’s New Map and the Shrinking Window for Accountability

When the Lines Began Moving Faster Than the Law

On May 4, Governor Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s new congressional map into law. The Legislature had passed it five days earlier, 83 to 28 in the House and 21 to 17 in the Senate. The map redraws four districts in ways that election analysts project would shift them from competitive or Democratic-leaning to safe Republican, potentially expanding a delegation Republicans already control 20 to 8.

The same day the Legislature voted, the Supreme Court decided Louisiana v. Callais. The Court ruled 6 to 3 that Louisiana’s majority-minority district could not survive Equal Protection scrutiny under the standards applied by the majority. In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the ruling “renders Section 2 all but a dead letter” in redistricting.

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America has always redrawn the boundaries of belonging.

What counts as "us" has never been fixed. The lines have shifted over time, sometimes slowly and sometimes painfully, but they have always shifted.

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Portrait of Sojourner Truth (ca. 1797-1883), leader of the Underground Railroad.

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As the United States prepares to mark the 250th anniversary of its founding later this summer, there will be extensive celebration and reflection about our democracy and the values it embodies. But the 250th is not the only anniversary that should capture our attention. Indeed, our nation’s story is an evolution of moments built over time.

One of these building blocks occurred 175 years ago, in 1851, during the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. There, on May 29th, Sojourner Truth delivered a legendary speech that called on attendees to reject the racial and gender biases used to limit her place in society and to defy a status quo that devalued her as a Black woman and treated her as invisible and expendable. Her speech is worthy of reflection today because it reveals an important story about how different people experience our democracy — and that story should inform how we build a more inclusive vision for our future.

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