Civil Action Podcast

Civil Action: Supreme Court’s Ethics Crisis

Attorneys Brian Kabateck and Shant Karnikian expose how the Supreme Court confirmation process has devolved from selecting legal scholars into political theater, with no enforceable ethics rules to prevent justices from accepting millions in undisclosed gifts. The hosts reveal how Justice Clarence Thomas accepted $4.2 million in luxury trips, private jets, and yacht excursions from GOP megadonor Harlan Crow—ten times more than all other justices combined—while Crow paid private school tuition for Thomas’ great-nephew and purchased Thomas’ mother’s home, all without disclosure despite clear federal law requirements. They detail how Justice Samuel Alito flew an upside-down American flag outside his Virginia home on January 17, 2021—a Stop the Steal symbol carried by January 6 insurrectionists—then blamed his wife and refused to recuse himself from Trump immunity cases, while the Supreme Court’s toothless ethics code adopted in November 2023 contains no enforcement mechanism, leaving impeachment as the only remedy despite no Supreme Court justice ever being impeached in U.S. history.