Uncle Clarence and Aunt Ginni are Proof the Supreme Court Needs Oversight

There is irony in requiring oversight on the highest level of the judiciary. If there is a group to which the Supreme Court answers, that group would become the Supreme Court and would become subject to the corruption someone like Uncle Clarence brings to the nation's highest court. 

Supreme Court justices should be beyond reproach, and not beyond accountability for blatantly ethical and possible criminal violations. The oversight needs to come from within the Supreme Court itself, and it is time for them to do it. They won't have Uncle Clarence on their side, but he is only one person. Anyone on the bench who thinks what he and Aunt Ginnie have done is okay are probably corrupt themselves. 

As I pointed out in a satirical post, Uncle Clarence deserves to become the new face for Black men who want to be white men. He is more of an Uncle Tom than Uncle Tom was. Uncle Tom was a tragic character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' However, it was not the book that caused the negative reference. It was the portrayal of the character by actors when it went to stage that was the catalyst for the reference. Uncle Clarence wasn't happy when he was confirmed 52-48 because he was going to serve with honor despite not having done so in previous jobs. He was happy because he achieved what rich white people have always had: no ethical accountability. [1]

Uncle Clarence was already under scrutiny for not recusing himself from decisions that would affect Aunt Ginnie when it was learned that he had been accepting expensive vacations for years from a GOP megadonor and not declaring the gifts. The problem isn't that there are not duties for judges to recuse themselves in cases that involve family, and for judges to declare any gift worth more than $415, with removal from the judiciary for violating those rules. The problem is that there is no one to take up the issue for ethical and legal violations by Supreme Court justices. 

It isn't that they are beyond the rules. It is that they ultimately decide how the rules apply. 

Uncle Clarence was the lone dissenting vote on whether the January 6th Committee could have access to information they wanted that was in possession of Trump and his associates. The other eight justices saw the request as legitimate. It turns out that Aunt Ginnie had been in touch with Mark Meadows via text on January 6th. 

More recently, it was uncovered that Uncle Clarence and Aunt Ginnie had accepted a free vacation worth $500,000 from GOP megadonor, Harlan Crow. That fray unraveled that these lavish vacation gifts had been going on for decades and he had not been declaring them as he was required to by law. I'm no lawyer, but it seems that willful violation of a law should be a crime, even if the person is a Supreme Court justice. However, that is a decision that would ultimately be left up to the Supreme Court.

Unfortunately, the only way for Uncle Clarence to be removed from the high court is through impeachment in Congress. Just as with impeaching a president, the House would draw up charges and vote on referral to the Senate for trial. A majority is needed in the House, but a supermajority of two-thirds is required for conviction and removal in the Senate. Only one justice has ever been impeached, and Samuel Chase was acquitted by the Senate in 1805 when that happened.

There is only one reason that I can imagine why the other eight justices don't censure Uncle Clarence and impose internal ethical oversight that they can call "The Uncle Clarence and Aunt Ginnie Rules." The reason I can imagine that they don't do that is because they, themselves, would become subject to the rules. They are powerless to remove the justice, but they are not powerless to report ethical violations both to regulatory agencies and the press. 

Even if they don't impose ethical oversight on themselves, the other justices should at least scold Uncle Clarence for his behavior through censure. It's the second-least they can do. The least they can do is nothing. 

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[1] Satirical reference: It is Time to Replace "Uncle Tom and Aunt Sally" with "Uncle Clarence and Aunt Ginnie"