'They're Swayed Right Now': Steve Cohen Demands Term Limits, Chides Justice Clarence Thomas

4 months ago

On "Forbes Newsroom," Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) spoke about President Biden’s Supreme Court reform proposals that would include an enforceable code of ethics and term limits.

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Transcript

00:00And it's being discussed now between you and me. So let's start with that last

00:04proposal first. How does that binding code of ethics differ from that code of

00:10conduct that was adopted by the Supreme Court in November? Well the Supreme Court

00:16there's no enforcement mechanism and they've never used it. It's just there

00:21it's like best rules, best practices. And they have it, Barron-Thomas, I'm not

00:27exactly sure what the rules encompass but I'm sure they wouldn't permit

00:30somebody to buy you a vehicle and hundreds of thousands of dollars vehicle

00:34and take you on these trips like he's done and get the tickets to events that

00:37you can't otherwise get that cost tens of thousands of dollars and not report

00:41there's supposed to report they haven't done it but there's no sanction if they

00:44don't do it. If you don't have sanctions you don't have rules or you get a rule

00:48you can't murder anybody unless it's jail time and it's no good. You've got to

00:55have teeth in the law. No teeth in that Supreme Court code. When it comes to term

01:01limits the point some would argue of lifetime appointments is to ensure

01:06fairness. So if there are term limits do you think the court would have less

01:10independence? The justices would be more susceptible to being swayed at all? Well

01:16I think they're swayed right now because they have lifetime appointments and I

01:20think they've forgotten the whole idea of maybe why they were put there although

01:23I'm not sure if Terrence Thomas ever understood it. He holds Thurgood

01:27Marshall's seat and he is as close to Thurgood Marshall as I am to Mars. It's

01:32just absurd the distance of the people and that seat was supposed to be for

01:35somebody who articulated and supported issues concerning civil rights and

01:38fairness to people who've been disenfranchised or are not allowed to be

01:43part of what would be a more perfect union. So you know I don't know that the

01:49shorter term at least they know that there's a replacement and the

01:54replacement might have a more current thought. Now you could appoint people

01:59like that Trump is appointed to the Federal Society of Recommended who don't

02:07think as people I think of their generation do but they're old they're

02:10old heads and younger bodies. Kavanaugh and he's probably in his 50s I think but

02:19he thinks like somebody who's in his 80s. He's got a mentality of the 50s, 50s

02:25time calendar not in a chronological number.

'They're Swayed Right Now': Steve Cohen Demands Term Limits, Chides Justice Clarence Thomas

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