The Kochs bought his seat on our Supreme Court with warm ‘n’ fuzzy TV ads that made me, for one, ill.
Now Gorsuch is paying them back.
Source: Neil Gorsuch Speech at Trump Hotel Raises Ethical Questions – The New York Times
Begins:
WASHINGTON — Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, President Trump’s Supreme Court appointee, is scheduled to address a conservative group at the Trump International Hotel in Washington next month, less than two weeks before the court is set to hear arguments on Mr. Trump’s travel ban.
Stephen Gillers, an expert on legal ethics at New York University, questioned the justice’s decision to speak at the hotel, which is at issue in lower-court cases challenging the constitutionality of payments to Mr. Trump’s companies.
“At this highly divisive political moment, especially as many Trump decisions are likely soon to reach the court’s docket, one just days later, a healthy respect for public confidence in the court should have led Justice Gorsuch to demur,” he said.
Justice Gorsuch declined to comment, said Kathleen L. Arberg, the Supreme Court’s public information officer.
And…
“This is not rocket science in the ethical world,” [Deborah L. Rhode, a law professor at Stanford] said. “It doesn’t get much more basic than this.”
“It’s a terrible signal for this group to be holding their meeting at the Trump International Hotel and for a Supreme Court justice to legitimate it by attending,” she said. “It just violates basic ethical principles about conflicts of interest.”
But for me, the key segment of this story is here:
Justice Gorsuch is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the “Defending Freedom Luncheon” on Sept. 28 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Fund for American Studies, which says it supports “principles of limited government, free-market economics and honorable leadership” through academic and fellowship programs.
That is, “libertarian” principles. A/k/a the Koch Bros Final Solution to Democracy.
Here’s more dope on it. Look at final paragraphs which cite Jane Mayer and…Charles Koch! Surprise.
Before Gorsuch’s decisions start hitting our democracy in the chest, read Jane Mayer’s Dark Money, and Nancy MacLean’s Democracy in Chains. (If you’re going to buy the books, please buy them from your local independent bookstore.)