The Hacks Keep Coming

By Noah Rothman

Friday, June 23, 2023

 

The attacks on the Supreme Court’s conservative majority keep coming. And they keep coming, in part, because the people behind this relentless campaign of character assassination are utterly unscrupulous.

 

The latest target of this smear campaign is Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Citing CNN’s investigative journalism, the left-wing advocacy group Common Dreams notes that, “months after she was sworn in in October 2020,” Barrett sold her home to a Notre Dame professor who occupied a leadership role in the advocacy organization Religious Liberty Initiative (RLI). “RLI has filed at least nine briefs with the court since the sale of Barrett’s home,” Common Dreams’ Julia Conley wrote.

 

The newly reported conflict of interest is one of several in recent months that have brought renewed scrutiny to the fact that the Supreme Court justices are not required to abide by an ethics code, as other federal judges are.

 

As is common now with these campaigns, these scant details serve as a platform from which left-wing advocates of Court “reform” allege that Barrett — like the rest of the Court’s conservatives — plays fast and loose with ethics rules. The judgments they render are therefore suspect. “Chief Justice Roberts has the power to change that, but so far he hasn’t shown the courage,” said one activist with the group that uncovered the sale of Barrett’s house. “If he fails to do his job, Congress must do theirs.”

 

Surely Conley hopes you don’t click through and read the CNN report on which her advocacy is based. If you did, you’d have read the following: “Neither Barrett’s real estate deal nor Alito’s appearance in Italy appear to violate any of the court’s ethics rules, according to several experts interviewed by CNN.”

 

The shamelessness is matched only by the contempt for your intelligence. At least we are spared the worst effects of this sort of advocacy by virtue of its laziness.