Category: Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere, MLK jr

Stories of injustice and justice

Clarence Thomas’ wife Ginni was paid nearly $100,000 for ‘consulting’ by a nonprofit that ended up filing an amicus brief to the Supreme Court

Insider

Clarence Thomas’ wife Ginni was paid nearly $100,000 for ‘consulting’ by a nonprofit that ended up filing an amicus brief to the Supreme Court: report

Erin Snodgrass and Matthew Loh – May 4, 2023

Ginni Thomas against blue background
Virginia “Ginni” Thomas at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on February 23, 2017.Susan Walsh/AP
  • A conservative activist helped Ginni Thomas rake in nearly $100,000 for consulting, The Washington Post reported.
  • Conservative lawyer Leonard Leo reportedly ensured Ginni Thomas’ name was kept off the paperwork.
  • The nonprofit that was billed filed an amicus brief before the Supreme Court that same year.

A little more than a decade ago, a conservative judicial activist helped Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, secure consulting work that yielded her nearly $100,000 — all the while asking that her name was left off the financial paperwork, according to a new Washington Post report.

Leonard Leo, a lawyer and conservative legal activist, told then-GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to bill a nonprofit he advised, Judicial Education Project, and give that money to Ginni Thomas in January 2012, the outlet reported, citing financial documents.

That very same year, Leo’s nonprofit filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in a key voting rights case in which a 5-4 majority — that included Thomas — ultimately opted to strike down a component of the Voting Rights Act.

The Post highlighted an opinion that Thomas wrote for the case, in which he favored the same outcome that the Judicial Education Project pushed for alongside other conservative organizations. However, he did not mention the amicus brief submitted by the nonprofit.

The latest scandal comes amid a flood of judicial misconduct allegations against Thomas in recent weeks. A series of ProPublica reports alleged that the longest-serving justice sold his childhood home to GOP mega-donor Harlan Crow without disclosing the sale and accepted decades of expensive — and undisclosed — vacations from Crow.

Ginni Thomas has previously courted controversy with her public, pro-Trump activities, and other conservative activism.

The Post said documents show that Leo instructed Conway at the time to “give” Ginni Thomas “another $25K,” noting that the billing information should have “no mention of Ginni, of course.”

“When you funnel tens of thousands of dollars to the wife of a Supreme Court justice and go out of your way to specify that her name must be kept off all records of the transaction, that means you know you are doing something wrong,” Sarah Lipton-Lubet, president of the Supreme Court advocacy nonprofit Take Back the Court, said in a statement shared with Insider.

Leo told The Post in a statement that Ginni Thomas’ work at the Judicial Education Project “did not involve anything connected with either the Court’s business or with other legal issues.”

“Anybody who thinks that Justice Thomas is influenced in his work by what others say or do, including his wife Ginni, is completely ignorant of who this man is and what he stands for,” Leo’s statement read, per The Post. “And anybody who thinks Ginni Thomas would seek to influence the Supreme Court’s work is completely ignorant of the respect she has for her husband and the important role that he and his colleagues play in our society.”

The conservative activist said he kept Thomas’ name off the financial paperwork “knowing how disrespectful, malicious and gossipy people can be,” per The Post.

“I have always tried to protect the privacy of Justice Thomas and Ginni,” he told the outlet.

Leo and Thomas first met when the justice was a clerk in the District of Columbia Circuit, and have been friends for decades, per The New York Times. Thomas is the godfather to one of Leo’s children and has spent time at the activist’s vacation home, The Times reported, while Ginni Thomas considers Leo a mentor, per The Washington Post.

Leo himself has been under recent scrutiny. Politico reported in March that Leo’s personal wealth soared as he started playing a key role in political fundraising and assisting then-President Donald Trump in 2016 with creating a conservative Supreme Court majority.

And on April 6, a nonprofit watchdog organization in Washington accused Leo of acquiring $73 million over six years from nonprofit groups that illegally sent money to his businesses.

Representatives for Ginni Thomas and the Supreme Court, did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment sent outside regular business hours. Leo’s firm, CRC Advisors, and Conway’s website did not immediately respond to similar requests.

Previously, SCOTUS experts have said that a main issue is the lack of enforcement of ethics standards; justices are tasked with policing themselves.

GOP donor Harlan Crow paid private tuition for relative of Justice Clarence Thomas

USA Today

GOP donor Harlan Crow paid private tuition for relative of Justice Clarence Thomas

John Fritze – May 4, 2023

WASHINGTON − Republican megadonor Harlan Crow paid private boarding school tuition for the grandnephew of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, according to a report Thursday in ProPublica that was likely to bring a fresh round of scrutiny to both Thomas and the ethics practices at the nation’s highest court.

Thomas had taken legal custody of his grandnephew at the time and told C-SPAN in an interview he was “raising him as a son.” Tuition at the Georgia boarding school ran more than $6,000 a month, ProPublica reported. Thomas did not note the payments from Crow on his annual financial disclosures.

The revelation was the latest involving Thomas and Crow, who paid for lavish trips and private jet travel for the justice and his wife and who purchased three Georgia properties from Thomas and his family − none of which were reported on disclosure forms officials are required to file to give the public insight into their financial arrangements.

The court did not respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, Mark Paoletta, who has represented Thomas’ wife, Ginni, said the tuition payment was not reportable because disclosure requirements do not cover nephews.

“This malicious story shows nothing except for the fact that the Thomases and the Crows are kind, generous, and loving people who tried to help this young man,” Paoletta said.

What’s the potential impact of the latest Clarence Thomas revelations?
  • The latest ProPublica story came as Thomas and the Supreme Court are under heightened scrutiny from Congress and outside groups over ethics concerns. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing Tuesday in which Democrats, in particular, slammed the court for a series of recent stories questioning disclosure practices.
  • But the debate over ethics at the Supreme Court has also become increasingly partisan, and Republican senators at the hearing accused Democrats of highlighting the ethics issues as a way to delegitimatize a court that handed down several controversial and conservative opinions on abortion, guns and religion in recent years.
  • In response to the initial ProPublica story about travel, Thomas said he was “advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the court, was not reportable.” He said he has “endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure,” Thomas said in a statement, “and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.”
Justice Clarence Thomas and the Supreme Court are under heightened scrutiny from Congress and outside groups over ethics concerns.
Justice Clarence Thomas and the Supreme Court are under heightened scrutiny from Congress and outside groups over ethics concerns.
‘Harlan picked up the tab’

It was not clear exactly how much money Crow spent on the tuition at the school, Hidden Lake Academy. ProPublica identified a bank statement for July 2009 that showed Crow paid the tuition for Thomas’ relative that month. Christopher Grimwood, a former administrator at the school, told ProPublica that Crow paid the tuition the entire time Thomas’ grandnephew was a student there.

“Harlan picked up the tab,” Grimwood told ProPublica.

Crow’s office responded with a statement asserting that his family has supported many scholarships and blamed “partisan political interests” for trying to turn an effort to help “at-risk youth” into something “nefarious.”

Thomas and Ginni Thomas have also accepted luxury trips for years paid for by Crow, including international travel on his private jet and yacht, ProPublica reported last month. Crow also purchased three Georgia properties from Thomas and members of his family in 2014, a transaction that Thomas failed to note on his annual disclosure forms.

GOP Lawmaker’s Wild Claim About Those Who ‘Hate Homosexuals’ Causes Literal Jaw-Drop

HuffPost

GOP Lawmaker’s Wild Claim About Those Who ‘Hate Homosexuals’ Causes Literal Jaw-Drop

Ed Mazza – May 3, 2023

Fox News Flips Over ‘Woke’ Legos

The right-wing network has added another new enemy to its list — the Lego toy company.

There was a jaw-dropping moment on the floor of the Florida House of Representatives this week after a Republican lawmaker’s comment about who really hates the LGBTQ+ community.

“ISIS, the Taliban and al Qaeda. Those are the folks who discriminate,” state Rep. Jeff Holcomb said Monday. “Our terrorist enemies hate homosexuals more than we do.”

It’s not clear if he misspoke or intended to say it like that, but he was speaking in support of a bill that urges Congress to prohibit “woke social engineering and experimentation” that are “eroding” the military.

The implication that Republicans hate the gay community ― but terrorists hate them even more ― led to gasps in the audience, while Democratic Rep. Kelly Skidmore’s jaw literally dropped:

Holcomb, who is in the Navy Reserve, continued by quoting the Navy creed: “I am committed to excellence and fair treatment of all.”

‘Poor people are not stupid’: I grew up in poverty, earned $14 an hour, and inherited $150,000. Here’s what I have learned from my windfall.

MarketWatch – The Moneyist

‘Poor people are not stupid’: I grew up in poverty, earned $14 an hour, and inherited $150,000. Here’s what I have learned from my windfall.

Quentin Fottrell – May 3, 2023

‘When I open my accounts and see how they are growing it really fills me with a sense of pride and determination.’
‘My tiny house has been one of the greatest decisions I’ve ever made, and has truly changed my whole mindset on what makes me happy.’ MARKETWATCH

In September 2018, this woman from Texas, then 36, wrote to the Moneyist to ask how she should invest her windfall — over $150,000. It was small by some people’s standards, but it was life-changing to her. She didn’t have a college degree, said she would never earn more than $30,000 a year, and worked full-time for $15 an hour, in addition to a part-time job at $10 an hour. She paid $1,050 a month in rent. 

She paid off her car, and bought a “tiny home,” which she owns free and clear, she wrote in an update a year later. She deposited $70,000 in a high-yield online savings account. She topped up her retirement portfolio and invested $30,000 into emerging markets. She maxed out her IRA and invested $10,000 between very safe dividend stocks and ETFs. She also spent $7,000 on dental work in Mexico.

And today? Five years after her first letter, she has updated MarketWatch readers on her progress, and what she learned from this experience:

Dear Moneyist,

There are a lot more Americans making less than $50,000 a year than there are those who make more. I feel like we aren’t really represented in the financial-advice world. I’d love to see more columns helping people to invest $25-$100 when they can. It’s empowering to invest. I might never be a Warren Buffet, but when I open my accounts and see how they are growing it really fills me with a sense of pride and determination. 

As to how I’m doing? Beautifully. I hate to say it but the pandemic was a blessing to me personally. I feel terrible saying that because of the loss and devastation so many others suffered and are still suffering because of it, but for me, the pandemic opened up a world of possibilities. A job opportunity landed in my lap because of the shutdown, and I’m making almost $4,000 a month now after taxes. 

Yes, me! I’ve never made so much money before (outside of the inheritance I received). I am still frugal and live off of about $1,800 a month, and that includes health insurance, long-term disability insurance, full-coverage car insurance, and pet insurance! Everything else goes to savings and investments. I won’t say what it is I’m doing because it might identify me, but I will say it is a job that allows me to be happy every second I’m “working.”

My tiny house has been one of the greatest decisions I’ve ever made, and has truly changed my whole mindset on what makes me happy. As I’ve lived in it I’ve altered certain parts of the design to be more efficient, and I can honestly say I intend to live tiny until some mobility issue — hopefully age-related and not an accident of some kind! — forces me back into a more conventional dwelling. Tiny living forces you to be mindful. Not only of your space, but also of yourself, and how you live in your space. It might sound strange to hear, but living tiny has truly made me a better person and improved my quality of life in ways other than financial. 

I would like to address some of the comments I read in response to your previous article on my letter. While most were truly supportive others were coming from a place of judgment and condescension. I’d like to thank everyone who wished me well, and for them to know that their words meant a lot to me. That people took time out of their day to read about me and wish me well was uplifting. I send them all virtual hugs and hope each and everyone is happy and healthy. 

However, I’d also like to address some of the comments that were less encouraging. Several people insisted that my letter was obviously fake because of how well I wrote, and that someone with my education level could not possibly be in the financial situation I’m in. I was less hurt by this attitude as I was utterly astounded by it. That people genuinely believe the educated cannot struggle financially just floored me. 

‘There are more ‘poor’ Americans than there are ‘rich’ Americans, and we are not stupid or lazy. We’re trying to make it work.’

Poor people are not stupid. We’re not illiterate country bumpkins struggling to figure out how to work a computer. We’re the nurse that lives down the street with two roommates to be able to afford rent. We’re the teachers still living with their parents because they can’t find enough roommates to qualify for an apartment. We’re the cops working at Home Depot on the side trying to save up for a baby. We’re the lawyers doing Uber just to afford student-loan payments. There are more “poor” Americans than there are “rich” Americans, and we are not stupid or lazy. We’re trying to make it work — usually by having 2-3 jobs. 

There is a financial crisis in this country. I believe it comes from unchecked capitalism. When corporations are allowed to buy up single-dwelling homes and drastically raise rents, and banks/lending institutions are allowed to prey on people with obscenely high interest rates, you foster an environment of exploitation. Our society allows for the targeting of young people before they even graduate high school. Credit-card companies and college-loan institutions begin preying on people as soon as they hit 18. If their parents are financially illiterate, and considering most public schools rarely teach financial literacy, too many young people start out life with insane amounts of debt. Additionally, wages have not kept pace with the cost of living in this country, and you have a lot of educated “poor” people. 

I just could not believe those comments that insisted this story was fake because I was too educated to be poor. Then I was mad. Mad because that stereotype is what prevents a lot of change from taking place. Nothing is ever going to get better if we keep thinking the worst of each other. 

Anyway, I again want to thank you for thinking of me and sharing my story. Hopefully it helped more people. As I said before, investing is truly empowering. I didn’t know that before, but I know it now, and I wish it for many more Americans. 

Sincerely, 

Not Quite As Low Income, But I’m Still A Couponing Lady

Dear Not Quite As Low Income,

Thank you for your insightful and eloquent letter. Your words and story continue to inspire me, and I hope will inspire many others out there in America who never had a head start in life and/or continue to face financial struggles. I wish you the best of everything in your life, and I hope more good things continue to happen to you.

Former GOP Lawmaker Rips Republicans With ‘Simple’ Answer To Gun Violence

HuffPost

Former GOP Lawmaker Rips Republicans With ‘Simple’ Answer To Gun Violence

Lee Moran – May 2, 2023

Another Day, Another Mass Shooting

Former Rep. David Jolly (R-Fla.) on Monday suggested a “simple” political solution to America’s gun violence.

“I would say the political answer to gun violence in America is never again elect a Republican. It’s that simple,” Jolly told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace during an analysis of the latest mass shooting in Texas in which five people were killed.

“They are bad-faith actors,” Jolly, who left the GOP in 2018, said of his former Republican colleagues, further slamming them for focusing on “motive as opposed to the means.”

“Listen, there is no motive that can accomplish gun violence without the means and the means is the weapon and the access to that weapon and in cases like we just saw, to weapons of war,” he explained.

Jolly noted a general consensus nationwide about “common sense measures” for gun control but said he felt “we need to get more aggressive” and talk about “licensing and registration” and much deeper background checks.

This woman was told her mortgage was paid off: 10 years later, she received a foreclosure notice in the mail. She decided to fight.

MarketWatch – The Human Cost

This woman was told her mortgage was paid off: 10 years later, she received a foreclosure notice in the mail. She decided to fight.

Aarthi Swaminathan – May 2, 2023

Mortgages originated in the early 2000’s and largely forgotten are now being pursued by debt collectors. Government officials are concerned.
Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, stands beside homeowner Rose Prophete during a field hearing in Brooklyn, N.Y. PHOTO: LEGAL SERVICES NYC

Rose Prophete bought her home in Canarsie, Brooklyn, N.Y. in May 2005. She thought she had paid off her loans until recently, when a company approached her about a debt she thought she had settled a long time ago.

The company expected Prophete to pay up over $130,000, or face foreclosure.

When refinancing her mortgage on the home, Prophete had split her mortgage into two. Prophete said she had been erroneously told that her second mortgage was paid off. That debt, having laid dormant for years, was now being pursued by a debt-collection firm.

Prophete is one of 13 plaintiffs in a 2021 federal lawsuit against the firm, and she recently testified at a field hearing into “zombie debts” held by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a government agency responsible for consumer protection in the financial-services sector.

The CFPB last week announced that it was issuing legal guidance for debt collectors trying to collect on mortgages that were long considered forgiven by borrowers, who in particular had no notices or statements sent over a decade about outstanding debt.

‘This is really frustrating — I don’t want to lose my home.’— Rose Prophete, who bought her home in Brooklyn, N.Y. in May 2005

The federal agency said that a debt collector “who brings or threatens to bring a state-court foreclosure action to collect a time-barred mortgage debt may violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.” Time-barred refers to debt whose statute of limitations has run out.

“Debt collectors do not get to claim ignorance of the law or ignorance of the debt’s age,” Rohit Chopra, director of the CFPB, said during the hearing. “If the statute of limitations has expired, taking legal action threatening to bring a suit of foreclosure may be illegal no matter what the debt collector claims to have known. This is the law.”

Prophete, a Haitian immigrant and a hospital technician, said during the CFPB hearing that she had worked three jobs to afford the two-family Brooklyn home, on top of taking care of small children. 

According to the lawsuit, a little more than a year after they completed the purchase, the broker who arranged the financing suggested she refinance the mortgage to lower her monthly payments. She agreed to refinance her mortgage into two, as the broker told her that this “financing structure would be the most financially advantageous to her,” per the filing. The first loan was for $504,000 and the second for $63,000 with an interest rate of 9%.

‘Debt collectors do not get to claim ignorance of the law or ignorance of the debt’s age.’— Rohit Chopra, director of the CFPB, speaking about the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

After a couple of years, she received a note from her first lender that the second loan was fulfilled — that she didn’t need to pay for it. She said she didn’t receive any statements for the second mortgage, so she focused on paying off her first one, the lawsuit said.

She said she never heard back from the mortgage servicer, until over a decade later, in March 2021, when she received a foreclosure notice in the mail. The creditor was attempting to collect on payments due from Jan. 1, 2009 to the date of filing in 2021. The payments had ballooned from $63,000 to over $130,000, according to the lawsuit.

“This is really frustrating — I don’t want to lose my home,” Prophete said during the field hearing. 

New York Attorney General Leticia James, who also spoke during the hearing, said that debt-collection firms were engaged in “predatory practices” to “rob individuals of the equity in their home.” 

Debt buyers were acquiring these mortgages “often for pennies on the dollar,” James said, and they were now suing homeowners and “seeking to exploit rising housing values by reviving the long-dormant zombie debt.” 

“I find this practice predatory and abusive and an affront to the American dream of sustainable home ownership,” she added. “I will fight this despicable practice.”

Florida’s insurance crisis: 2 special sessions, little help | Commentary

Orlando Sentinel

Florida’s insurance crisis: 2 special sessions, little help | Commentary

Scott Maxwell, Orlando Sentinel – May 2, 2023

For years, Florida lawmakers ignored a looming insurance crisis.

Then, with rates skyrocketing and companies fleeing the state, they scrambled to call not one, but two special sessions, vowing to help.

Well, my wife and I saw what the Legislature’s version of help looks like a few months ago when our insurance bill jumped from $4,000 to $7,000.

Any more “help “like that and we’ll be eating cat food.

In reality, we’ll be just fine. But a growing number of Floridians are facing bills they can barely afford as prices skyrocket throughout the state.

The Insurance Information Institute predicted increases of 40% throughout Florida this year. Some companies have requested 60% hikes. And scores of Floridians are still being dropped by their carriers while the state-run Citizens Property Insurance keeps bloating.

This is an undeniable, mounting mess.

So once again, GOP legislators – who have spent the better part of the past two years waging culture wars – have cobbled together another insurance bill.

But if you’re counting on this lowering your rates, bad news: It will not.

That’s not my take. It’s the take of former GOP Sen. Jeff Brandes – one of the few lawmakers who repeatedly warned his colleagues to take action years ago and was largely ignored.

“Nothing in this bill lowers rates,” Brandes, who now runs the Florida Policy Project, said this week. “Nothing in this bill encourages more companies to come.”

Brandes and I have differing views on some aspects of reform – particularly as it relates to the transparency measures and regulations that subsidized insurance companies should face.

But we agree on three key things:

1. Despite years of yapping about fraud claims driving up costs and rates, Florida lawmakers have never cracked down on bad actors in any meaningful fashion.

2. The solutions they’re talking about now aren’t going to do much, if anything, to bring down rates.

3. Any meaningful solution – in a state like ours that’s basically a bullseye for hurricanes and increasingly at risk of flooding – is going to involve a boatload of public money.

Brandes and I may have varied thoughts on how that money should be spent. But the reality is that this problem – where the state-run insurance company is now covering millions of Floridians at increasingly high rates – requires a major investment and serious policy reform.

And that’s not good news for a Legislature that specializes in divisive bumper-sticker priorities – dragging Disney, fuming about drag queens and decrying wokeism.

When it comes to hard, serious policy work, they are either unwilling or incapable of getting the job done. At least when it comes to insurance.

A clear example of that is fraud. For years, lawmakers have blamed fraudulent claims for driving up insurance costs and driving companies out of the state. But they haven’t done squat from an enforcement standpoint.

“If you want talent in the Office of Insurance Regulation – which should be one of the most talented in the state – you have to pay for it,” Brandes said.

That seems obvious. If your city had a rash of burglaries, you’d beef up your burglary patrol. But Florida politicians have whined about fraud without ever dedicating serious resources to exposing, punishing and stopping it.

If they can set up a statewide election-crime police force to deal with fever-dream problems, you’d think they’d beef up their insurance team to deal with an actual financial nightmare.

But to really bring down prices, we need more competition among providers. Or we need to invest more in Citizens – and basically accept that a giant, costly state-run insurance company is the only way we’re going to be able to cover everyone in a state that’s both storm-ravaged and low-wage.

Few people really want that second option. Certainly not Brandes. But many of us aren’t super keen either on just handing over tax dollars to an industry with a track record of hosing its policy holders.

Just a few weeks ago, the Washington Post published a maddening investigative report that found Florida insurance companies were financially victimizing hurricane survivors by gutting their claims and payments – sometimes by as much as 90% of what the companies’ own adjusters said the homeowners were due. The piece featured an adjuster who said one insurance company took his report – which estimated $200,000 in valid claims for one home – and whittled it down to just $27,000 without his knowledge or consent.

Brandes prefers offering companies incentives to write Florida policies. That may be worth exploring – with a lot of checks and balances added in.

But here’s the bottom line: Either scenario – majorly subsidizing private industries or growing/transforming Citizens into something like a Florida version of Medicare for homeowners – is painful. They’re both costly, politically unpopular and involve a lot of hard work.

Unfortunately, most Florida politicians don’t want to do hard work or make unpopular moves. So they just keep screaming about critical race theory and transgender athletes. And while they scream, your rates keep rising.

I think we’re heading toward a pain point – where even the Floridians who used to laugh at the culture wars are going to stop laughing once they realize they can barely afford to stay in their homes. That may be when they start finally putting people in office who are more interested in solving problems than creating them.

Can American’s expect this U.S. Supreme Court to be fair and impartial? U.S. Supreme Court to examine whistleblower claims against financial firms in UBS case

Reuters

U.S. Supreme Court to examine whistleblower claims against financial firms in UBS case

Daniel Wiessner – May 1, 2023

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington

(Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine how difficult it should be for financial whistleblowers to win retaliation lawsuits against their employers as the justices took up a long-running case involving Switzerland’s UBS Group AG.

The justices will hear an appeal by Trevor Murray, a former UBS bond strategist, of a lower court’s decision to throw out his 2021 lawsuit that accused the company of unlawfully firing him for refusing to publish misleading research reports and complaining about being pressured to do so.

The appeal involves a technical but important issue – whether whistleblowers who sue their employers for retaliation under the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act must prove that companies acted with “retaliatory intent.”

The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year decided that Murray was required to meet that bar and failed, creating a split with four other federal appeals courts. Those courts have said that defendants in Sarbanes-Oxley cases can raise the lack of intent as a defense, but that plaintiffs do not have to prove employers acted with intent.

A Supreme Court ruling in favor of UBS could significantly curtail financial whistleblower lawsuits because it is often difficult for plaintiffs to prove a defendant’s motives.

Robert Herbst, a lawyer for Murray, said the 2nd Circuit decision ignored the text of the whistleblower law, adding that he looked forward to arguing the case before the Supreme Court.

A UBS spokesperson said, “We expect the court will uphold the 2nd Circuit’s decision.”

Murray, who worked in UBS’s mortgage securitization unit, accused UBS officials of pressuring him to issue skewed and bullish research on commercial mortgage-backed securities in order to support the bank’s trading and underwriting operations. He has said he was fired in 2012 about two months after complaining to supervisors and despite receiving excellent performance reviews.

UBS has denied wrongdoing and said Murray’s termination was part of a cost-cutting campaign that eliminated thousands of jobs.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was adopted in 2002 and created enhanced accounting standards for publicly traded U.S. companies after a series of accounting scandals, along with new legal protections for employees who report illegal conduct.

The Supreme Court is due to hear the case in its next term, which begins in October.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Will Dunham)

Al Franken blasts Supreme Court: It’s ‘illegitimate’

The Hill

Al Franken blasts Supreme Court: It’s ‘illegitimate’

Julia Mueller – May 1, 2023

Al Franken blasts Supreme Court: It’s ‘illegitimate’

“The court is a very divisive entity now, institution right now. And the Supreme Court, to me, is illegitimate,” Franken said on “The Al Franken Podcast” in conversation with The Washington Post’s Dan Balz.

​​Former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) is calling the Supreme Court “illegitimate” and Chief Justice John Roberts a “villain,” citing a number of controversies surrounding the nation’s highest court.

Franked resigned from the Senate in 2017 amid sexual harassment allegations.

He referenced the controversial confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump nominee, and the court’s decision last summer to overturn Roe v. Wade.

“The way they didn’t take up [Obama nominee Merrick] Garland and on saying, ‘It’s an election year,’ and then they, of course, put in Coney Barrett like eight days before the election. Then, of course, Dobbs and abortion.”

Balz said the court has “lost credibility” and has become “seen increasingly as one more partisan institution,” though he noted Roberts has tried to counter that perception.

“I think the Chief Justice is actually much more culpable for this division than people think,” Franken said, referencing some of Roberts’s decisions. “I think Roberts is much more the villain in this than people give him credit for.”

Polling has indicated a decline in Americans’ trust that the Supreme Court, with its nine lifetime-appointment Justices, is nonpartisan.

Franken’s comments also come amid new scrutiny over the Supreme Court’s ethics standards after reporting from ProPublica found Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose a series of luxury trips he’d taken, paid for by Republican donor Harlan Crow, and revelations that the same Texas billionaire had paid for the home Thomas’s mother was living in.

Why Republicans Want Voters to Fear Kamala Harris As President

The Root

Why Republicans Want Voters to Fear Kamala Harris As President

Jessica Washington – May 1, 2023

GREENBELT, MARYLAND - APRIL 25: In this handout image provided by NASA, Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks during a tour of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center with President Yoon Suk Yeol of the Republic of Korea, on April 25, 2023
GREENBELT, MARYLAND – APRIL 25: In this handout image provided by NASA, Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks during a tour of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center with President Yoon Suk Yeol of the Republic of Korea, on April 25, 2023

Republicans taking jabs at President Joe Biden’s age isn’t a new phenomenon. But, GOP Presidential candidate Nikki Haley took things way further when she predicted Biden would likely die within the next five years. Her poorly executed Miss Cleo impersonation aside, what Haley’s trying to do here seems pretty straightforward.

Just read what she said on Fox News last week; “He announced that he’s running again in 2024, and I think that we can all be very clear and say with a matter of fact that if you vote for Joe Biden, you really are counting on a President Harris because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely,” said Haley, 51.

Rather than run against Biden and his record, Republicans like Haley want to make this election about Harris, says Jo Von McCalester, a Political Science Lecturer at Howard University. “To imply that [Biden] is not going to live and if you vote for him, it’s really going to be her,” says McCalester, “is to dog whistle to people that you could end up with a Black woman as President in your country.”

Nina Smith, a political strategist and former senior advisor to Stacey Abrams, agrees with McCalester’s assessment. “It’s definitely the GOP trying to weaponize an inherent bias that we have against women in leadership,” she says.

Ted Cruz Chimes in on Biden’s Age

Haley isn’t the only Republican trying to position this as a race against Harris, not the sitting President. In an interview last week, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz made similar jabs.

“Joe Biden is 142 years old,” said Cruz on Fox News. “Can you imagine Kamala Harris sitting across from Putin or Xi and just cackling?”

The imagery employed by Cruz is very intentional, says McCalester. “The idea of her sitting across from Putin gives two visuals,” she says. “It gives the visuals of a Black person that you don’t believe sounds intelligent enough to sit across from a ‘world power or leader.’ It also harkens to the fact that she’s a woman.”

This isn’t the first time Republicans have tried to make Harris the focus of their attacks on the Biden-Harris ticket, says Cliff Albright, Executive Director of Black Voters Matter Fund, a voting rights organization.

“They tried it to a certain extent in the last presidential election, right? But there, there really wasn’t a consensus on the strategy,” says Albright. “It’s likely to increase this time because now, unlike in 2020, it’s even more clear what Biden’s merits are. They’re starting to realize that we’re gonna have a hard time running against his record.”

Is Making The Election About Harris a Winning Strategy?

The bigger question is whether Republicans can win by making the election about Harris. According to Smith, it might be the most effective tool in their arsenal, especially for someone like Haley.

“Nikki Haley is barely registering in polls. She’s not making up any ground when it comes to beating Donald Trump in a primary,” says Smith. “I think they know they have to split this ticket up… if you split them up, then his age becomes a question, and her experience becomes a question.”

“It’s really pathetic,” says Albright. “It’s a sign that they know they can’t win just on the strength of their case… and so when all else fails in the Republican party, what do they lean on, and the usual answer is good old racism.”

None of these strategies are new, says Albright pointing to the infamous Willie Horton ads used against Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis. But in the modern era, he argues, they have their limits. “They’re effective to a certain extent with the base, but all recent elections are showing us that it can go only so far,” says Albright, adding. “So, will it be more effective than going after Biden? I think so. Will it be effective enough for them to win? I don’t believe so.”

Hillary Holley, Executive Director of Care in Action, a nonprofit progressive labor organization, and a former Democratic strategist in Georgia, says she doesn’t believe these tactics can win if Progressive groups are on the ground making a case for the administration and Harris’ accomplishments. “People may be concerned that voters may fall for these distractions, these lies,” says Holley. “Our allies have proven that we know how to talk to voters. We can tell voters the truth, and we once we do that massive robust outreach, they end up voting for progress.”

McCalester is more skeptical. This could “absolutely” be a winning message for Republicans, she says. “It’s the we’re gonna appeal to racists, we’re gonna appeal to sexists [strategy],” she says. Unfortunately, it’s worked repeatedly for Republicans, says McCalester, and there’s no reason to think it can’t work again.

“I predict things can only get worse,” she says.

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