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Before the Supreme Court published its weak ethics code Monday, I wrote that the mere issuance of a code — especially an unenforceable one — shouldn’t halt congressional investigation into court-related ethics scandals. So it was good to see Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., say that subpoenas should still go forward for Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo.
The Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committee on which Whitehouse sits was supposed to vote on subpoenaing Crow and Leo last week before it abruptly adjourned. Committee Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., cited 88 amendments filed by Republicans ahead of the vote as reason for delay.
Speaking Monday on “Deadline: White House,” the Rhode Island senator told Nicolle: “Chairman Durbin is eager to proceed. I certainly am, and our process is to reschedule after the avalanche of obstructive amendments that we got, so that we’re prepared for it next time and can deal with it and go on to the important vote, which is the one on the subpoenas.”
In addition to the billionaire GOP donor Crow, whose largesse to Justice Clarence Thomas was revealed by ProPublica’s investigative reporting, Whitehouse noted that Leo “has been the functionary for the billionaires” and that both men are “deeply, deeply enmeshed” with the right-wing justices.
Presumably, those GOP-appointed justices at the center of these scandals — namely Thomas and Samuel Alito — contributed to the code’s weakness and lack of an enforcement mechanism. But as Whitehouse’s words suggest, they shouldn’t have thought that toothless words would scuttle scrutiny from Congress — or, of course, the public.
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