Sheldon Whitehouse

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

My Ethics Act would require judges to be more transparent about conflicts of interest and who pays for travel/gifts. It also requires shadowy groups who lobby the Court via amicus briefs to disclose their actual funders, and imposes real recusal standards that are way overdue. — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

Without dark money, we’ll finally be able to see real conflicts of interest. Here’s where judicial ethics reform comes in, whether the justices do it themselves (fat chance) or Congress takes action via my Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, & Transparency Act. — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

How to fix what’s wrong at SCOTUS? The capture of the Court was enabled by dark money – it funds judicial lobbying groups, moves cases through lower courts, & funds ads for the chosen justices. We can start with transparency: pass my DISCLOSE Act & expose that influence. — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

I’ve been trying to draw attention to the Supreme Court’s downward spiral for years. Yes, the Court is in shambles, but we can fortify it against corruption if we address the root causes. Here’s how we start -> — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

Congratulations to all who loved and admired John McCain on his Presidential Medal of Freedom remembrance today — America had no better ambassador of freedom. — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

I don’t want microplastics in my food, and I’m guessing you don’t either. @SenJeffMerkley and I are getting the ball rolling with Plastic Pollution Action Month so we can clean up this toxic mess for good. — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

RT @SenTinaSmith: Yes. https://t.co/fnjgvTAOTe — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

Big Oil companies are raising your gas prices to boost their record profits. @RepRoKhanna and I are fighting to claw back these ill-gotten gains and return them to low and middle-income Americans via quarterly checks. — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

The Supreme Court is serving its special interest overlords. The idea that they don’t know what they’re doing is preposterous. — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

It is past time for Congress to allow Medicare to negotiate the lowest possible drug prices for our seniors. No one should have to choose between a lifesaving prescription and food on the table. — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

WH is right — but it's not your local gas station to blame any more than Amazon monopoly is fault of their drivers. The rot is up at Big Oil HQ. — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

"The Court appoints itself—instead of Congress or the expert agency—the decisionmaker on climate policy. I cannot think of many things more frightening.” — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

“The subject matter of the regulation here makes the Court’s intervention all the more troubling. Whatever else this Court may know about, it does not have a clue about how to address climate change." — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

"The Court will not allow the Clean Air Act to work as Congress instructed. The Court, rather than Congress, will decide how much regulation is too much.” — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

“Courts should be modest. Today, the Court is not. […] In rewriting [the Clean Air Act], the Court substitutes its own ideas about delegations for Congress’s. And that means the Court substitutes its own ideas about policymaking for Congress’s." — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

“Today, one of those broader goals makes itself clear: Prevent agencies from doing important work, even though that is what Congress directed. That anti-administrative-state stance shows up in the majority opinion, and it suffuses the concurrence.” — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

"...When that method would frustrate broader goals, special canons like the 'major questions doctrine' magically appear as get out-of-text-free cards.” — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

“...years ago, I remarked that ‘[w]e’re all textualists now.’ It seems I was wrong. The current Court is textualist only when being so suits it... — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

“The majority claims it is just following precedent, but that is not so. The Court has never even used the term ‘major questions doctrine’ before.” — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

"...The majority today overrides that legislative choice.” — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

“Congress knows what it doesn’t and can’t know when it drafts a statute; and Congress therefore gives an expert agency the power to address issues—even significant ones—as and when they arise. That is what Congress did in enacting Section 111..." — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

“The Court today issues what is really an advisory opinion on the proper scope of the new rule EPA is considering. That new rule will be subject anyway to...pre-enforcement judicial review. But this Court could not wait...to constrain EPA’s efforts to address climate change.” — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

"Today, the Court strips the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the power Congress gave it to respond to “the most pressing environmental challenge of our time.” — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

Reading Justice Kagan’s excellent dissent in West Virginia v. EPA, it’s clear that she is on to the FedSoc Six, whose fossil fuel industry-friendly “reasoning” is dominating the Court. Follow along for some excerpts from her dissent: — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

Big Oil is hiking gas prices and bragging to investors about their record profits. It’s plain wrong. I’m fighting to claw back oil companies’ massive windfall and put that money back in your pocket. — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

I remember how hard the Koch operation tried to push that “reform” into criminal justice reform. As a lead author, I fought back hard, and stopped it. But they never stop. And the Polluter Page loves a polluter. — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

A public safety offense makes it a crime to do dangerous things — sell adulterated food, or store dangerous chemicals in unregulated sites, or release pollutants without a permit — and a prosecutor doesn’t have to prove a corporation’s state of mind, just that they did it. — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

Hmmm. Could this sudden Polluter Page enthusiasm for civil liberties relate to the long-standing Koch effort to get rid of corporate “public safety” crimes — crimes that don’t require criminal mens rea? https://t.co/bCo4RNeFBx — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

https://t.co/M7KUqcnk4I — PolitiTweet.org

Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse

“Honest Elections Project” is a “fictitious name” in the cluster of front groups that, under the “fictitious name” “Judicial Crisis Network,” spent millions in dark money packing the Court, in league with (and down the hall from) the Federalist Society. Small world. — PolitiTweet.org