All articles tagged with #sheldon whitehouse
Richard Grenell resigns as head of the Kennedy Center amid a public clash with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse over the center’s maintenance and a two-year, Trump‑backed renovation; Grenell pushed back on criticism on X, while Trump named Matt Floca to oversee operations during the renovation, which is tied to a roughly $200 million project.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse criticized Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's excuses in response to ethics questions raised in a report about a free luxury fishing trip. Alito failed to report the trip on his financial disclosure forms and didn’t recuse himself from cases involving Singer’s businesses. Whitehouse said Alito's excuses were "preposterous" and investigators would "get to the bottom of" ethics bombshells involving Alito and his fellow conservative Justice Clarence Thomas. Whitehouse also highlighted the need to scrutinize "this creepy group of right-wing billionaires who are meddling in the Supreme Court."
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has expressed concerns about the impartiality of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump and is overseeing his federal case in Florida. Whitehouse likened Cannon to a "Trump advocate in a robe" but said she may correct herself going forward given that her biggest ruling to-date in Trump's federal case was summarily rejected by an appellate panel. Whitehouse said there are "at least two firewalls" between President Joe Biden and the case, and he expects "a lot of proceedings beforehand" to test Cannon's behavior and potentially move for her recusal if necessary.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said that Congress has the power to reform Supreme Court ethics rules, despite arguments that it would violate the separation of powers. Whitehouse pointed out that the ethics law at the center of the controversy surrounding Clarence Thomas’ failure to disclose gifts he received while serving on the court is a law Congress passed. However, he also acknowledged that Congress has no say in cases within the judicial branch of government.
Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has said that Congress can impose ethics reform on the US Supreme Court, despite arguments made by Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow and Chief Justice John Roberts. Whitehouse has called for the judicial conference to put constraints around the Supreme Court's behavior and treat it like all other federal judges. Supreme Court justices are nominally subject to federal ethics laws but in practice govern themselves. Whitehouse has campaigned against so-called “dark money” in US politics and has called the Roberts court a “fact-free zone as well as an ethics-free zone”.