No discipline for SCOTUS Justice Kavanaugh: good or bad? The Trump litmus test continues

I have written on this blog many times that the election of Donald Trump has so far worked, and continues to work, as a litmus test for many ways of how the American government works, on federal and state levels.

Certain things which the law permitted the previous administrations to do, somehow becomes not permissible under this administration.

Certain things that were wrong - but not noticed - under the previous administrations, became more visible just because Trump is doing it.

I am planning a detailed overview of this phenomenon, but in this particular article I wanted to point out one extraordinary feature of the "Trump litmus test":  it has shed a light on the U.S. Supreme Court and what is very wrong about its operation over the last 100 years.

First of all, with the death of Justice Scalia (and unlawful filibustering by the Republican Senate of a nomination to SCOTUS by President Obama) and retirement of Justice Kennedy, Trump has got to fill two seats so far on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Same as President Obama, same as all presidents before him, President Trump has avoided as a plague in fitting the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, the last resort in death penalty cases - candidates with criminal defense background.

The only people who have criminal law experience on that court are former prosecutors.  

Of the 9 current justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, 

1. Stephen Breyer;
2. Clarence Thomas;
3. John Roberts (The Chief Justice):
4. Ruth Ginsburg;
5. Samuel Alito;
6. Neil Gorsuch;
7. Sonia Sotomayor;
8. Elena Kagan;
9. Brett Kavanaugh,

the only U.S. Supreme Court justice who does not have prior experience as a prosecutor is Ruth Ginsburg, and yet, Ruth Ginsburg's experience as a law professor and general counsel for ACLU between 1973 and her nomination to the bench in 1980 is not the equivalent of a background in criminal defense, since the ACLU has never undertaken criminal defense, and Ruth Ginsburg in particular did not work as a criminal defense attorney.

I thoroughly dislike Hillary Clinton and did not vote in the previous presidential elections because I did not see good presidential candidates in either of the candidates running in 2016.

Having said that, I did defend Hillary Clinton, during her election campaign, in August of 2016, in my blog article when she was bashed for her actions as a criminal defense attorney and a public defender.

And, I have stated on this blog that President Obama did a disservice to this country when he nominated Merrick Garland, having bypassed a courageous female judge Jane Kelly with a public defender background, who continued to work as a public defender even after she was attacked and left for dead, because of her public defense work.

President Trump, so far, also disappointed, having nominated to the court 2 white males, both former prosecutors, having so far confirmed the trend portraying background in criminal defense or civil rights litigation as a disqualification for public office (only one justice on the U.S. Supreme Court has a qualification in civil rights litigation, and NONE - in criminal defense).  Once again, this court handles criminal cases, and, especially, death penalty cases.

With NO justices having prior experience in criminal defense, while 8 justices having experience (and indoctrination) in prosecution, and the mentality of people having "enjoyed" prosecutorial immunity - which corrupts prosecutors' minds and drives them to score convictions, without regard whether the law is followed, with an eyes on the prize, career advancement.

For 8 out of 9 U.S. Supreme Court justices, prosecutorial positions did bring a career advancement, to the top of the American government, a lifetime appointment to a position where there are no job requirements, no accountability and an unlimited power over life and death (literally), people's fates, property, and over setting the law in the entire country - without authority for doing that in the U.S. Constitution, but by "well-settled" custom.

Since 1925, SCOTUS has asked - and received - from the U.S. Congress the gift of not having to review all petitions filed with the court, on the merits.

A SCOTUS judge is the only position where the judge does not have to preside over court cases other than impeachment of the President (applicable only to the Chief Judge of SCOTUS) and does not have to discharge functions other than administrative (swearing in highest officers of the U.S. Government).

Otherwise, there is no minimum of cases to review per year for SCOTUS.

If SCOTUS chooses no cases for review in a given year, they have a right to do that, too.  Nobody can make them accountable for refusing to review the absolute majority of cases (7920 out of 8000 filed, and then, we do not have official statistics of how many cases are REALLY filed published by the U.S. Supreme Court, only approximate numbers).

Cases that SCOTUS does take for review "coincidentally" are filed predominantly by 70 attorneys, the so-called "Echo Chamber", most of them having some kind of connection to the court (former clerks etc.).

Nothing too crooked.

Judges accept gift from parties and attorneys - for themselves and for their law clerks.

Periodically scandals flare about particularly corrupt gift-taking, but no impeachment of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice occurred on that ground so far, and the U.S. Supreme Court does not have a code of judicial conduct, but does have a code of silence for its clerks and a code of PERSONAL loyalty of clerks to justices, which has nothing to do with the U.S. Constitution that gives to justices their power, within its strict boundaries.

Justice Scalia was "found dead" at a remote Texas ranch with personnel speaking only Spanish, the ranch belonging to an individual who has had prior litigation with the U.S. Supreme Court that ended up in his favor.

The duck-hunting trip of the same Scalia with a party in litigation also did not result in discipline for Scalia.

Scalia's friend on the court Justice Ginsburg, while spewing open hatred to the current President, and having done so since before his elections, continues to preside over cases where he is a party, without recusal.

As reported by an extraordinary lawsuit of an attorney out of California, Linda Shao, SCOTUS Justices not only refuse to recuse from a case involving an organization that judges ask to "sponsor" their law clerk for annual free month-long trips to London with VIP treatment by the British judiciary, but hide certain materials from Linda Shao's docket on the court, and do that systematically.

While President Trump is being investigated for "Russian collusion" by a special counsel, nobody investigates SCOTUS justices when they travel or lecture while paid by foreign governments.

In 2015, foreign sponsors paid (bought) U.S. Supreme Court justices for the following:

Roberts - lectures in Japan;

Ginsburg - lectures in South Korea; Switzerland

Kennedy with spouse - Austria;

Kagan - Israel;

Breyer - Great Britain

Ginsburg and Alito were paid by lawyers' organizations to travel abroad in 2015,

Ginsburg - to the Great Britain (paid for by the American College of Trial Lawyers), 

Alito - to the Dominican Republic, paid for by the Federal Bar Council - 

by organizations of attorneys APPEARING in front of these judges.

SCOTUS judges who reject the majority of incoming petitions, have time for side jobs.

For example, in 2015, the following side jobs were reported by SCOTUS judges (I summarized this information from justices' releases obtained by a watch-group on a Freedom of Information Request),  I have printouts of  copies of justices' actual financial disclosures for 2015 are on file.

Anthony M. Kennedy	McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific	$                   12,500.00
Anthony M. Kennedy	Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Clarence Thomas	Horatio Alger Association
Clarence Thomas	Creighton University School of Law	$                   15,000.00
Clarence Thomas	George Washington University School of Law	$                   10,000.00
Clarence Thomas	J. Reuben Clark Law School - Brigham Unviersity	$                      2,225.00
Clarence Thomas	The Daily Caller	Salary
Clarence Thomas	Liberty Consulting, Inc.	Salary and benefits
Ruth Ginsburg	Trust Article Fourth U/W Martin D. Ginsburg, Trustee
Ruth Ginsburg	University of Michingan - Tanner Lecturer	$                   10,000.00
Samuel Alito	ABA Advisory Committee on the Law Library of Congress
Samuel Alito	Member Honorary Board of the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in the United States
Samuel Alito	University of Kentucky	$                      6,000.00
Samuel Alito	Duke University Law School	$                   15,000.00
Elena Kagan	Harvard Law School
Elena Kagan	President and Fellows of Harvard College	$                   15,000.00
Stephen Breyer	Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Stephen Breyer	The Pritzker Architecture Prize
Stephen Breyer	Penguin Random House LLC, Royalty Income	$                 116,774.61
Stephen Breyer	The authors Registry, Inc; Royalty Income	$                         384.93
Stephen Breyer	Penguin Random House LLC, Nonemployee compensation	$5,000

Note that, when SCOTUS Justices are paid lecturers in colleges and universities, they were disqualified from hearing immigration cases where colleges and universities were claiming standing and injury from Trump administration's "travel ban".

None of them recused.

And none of that became a burning issue in the American media or for the American public.

No "emolument clause" was invoked, no demonstrations held in the streets, no lawsuits filed and no criminal or impeachment investigations commenced.

In fact, complaints against U.S. Supreme Court justices die on filing - because NOBODY "under the law" in the United States may discipline a SCOTUS justice.

As was shown in the case of Justice Kavanaugh.

One might say that complaints against Justice Kavanaugh were politically motivated - since he was on the federal bench for 12 years, from 2006 to 2018, with no complaints filed against him.

The trigger for the complaints was not the judge's behavior, but him having been nominated by President Trump who certain people want to filibuster no matter what he does.

From that point of view, complaints against Kavanaugh, likely, did not have merit and were unfair.

But, that is not the point I am making here.

The point I am making is that the complaints, fair or unfair, meritorious or not, were not even REVIEWED by federal judges - BECAUSE Judge Kavanaugh has become a U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh, and as such, unreachable by judicial discipline.

He (and his 8 associates) have a job that has

1. no requirements of a minimum caseload;
2. a marble palace and a practically unlimited budget - for 9 people to review court cases, for which the same court had, initially, a single room in the Capitol building;
3. plenty of time to go, during business hours, to 
1. talk to law students;
2. talk to bar associations (all expenses paid for travel and accommodations);
3. write books, sell them and advertise them;
4. lecture for money;
4. an ability to allow themselves to accept gifts in money and in kind for themselves and for their personnel from parties and counsel in litigation, and from foreign governments and entities - 

with NO ACCOUNTABILITY whatsoever.

The "phenomenon" of no discipline for a U.S. Supreme Court Justice BECAUSE he is a U.S. Supreme Court Justice was caught by the media because the complaints were against a Trump-nominated Justice.

But, the same applies to all other judges of this court.

Isn't it time to demand from the newly-elected democratic House in the U.S. Congress to stir up this sinecure that has nothing to do with the authority given to this court (a limited authority, mind) by the U.S. Constituion, and to re-establish this court the way it was planned by the "Founding Fathers" in the first place - 

not as a lifetime graft-making sinecure without any accountability and unlimited power, 

but a court of law that must resolve ALL incoming petitions on the merits.

If they do not have enough justices to review all incoming cases - expand the court.

If we have 150 justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, and if they have a strictly enforceable code of conduct, limited terms and a prohibition on making laws, and on accepting gifts of ANY KIND from the public and especially from foreign governments, entities and individuals - maybe, then, we will look the way we declare ourselves to be, a democracy?

Because the way SCOTUS is set up now smacks of a monarchy.

Some history of corruption, retaliation and cover up of New York Chief Judge DiFiore and her predecessors and the trail of bodies of African Americans following DiFiore in her offices

As I have disclosed many times on this blog, my law license has been suspended without a hearing in November of 2015 by the State of New York based on sanctions imposed by a corrupt judge, Carl F. Becker, who has run from the bench 3 months before my suspension when first the New York State Comptroller and then the FBI started to investigate financial shenanigans in the County that Becker was part and parcel for 30 years. 

Becker sanctioned me for "harassing him" personally with motions to recuse, commenced, prosecuted, provided unsworn testimony in and adjudicated disciplinary proceedings against me.

I am not alone in how I was sanctioned.

All across the country attorneys are subjected to judicial retaliation for criticism of judges.

Just how thin a skin to criticism top judges have, was demonstrated in two mutually quoting "law review articles" (which had nothing with the law, but everything with lamentations about criticism and not-so-thinly veiled threats against critics) - by the then-Chief Judge of New York Court of Appeals Judith Kaye and by the Court of Appeals judge and friend of prior Chief Judge Sol Wachtler (who was convicted of a federal felony just 3 years prior to the time of the law reviews) Joe Bellacosa.

I wrote about Bellacosa's "law review article" here. 

By the way, Bellacosa was an invited guest at the swearing-in ceremony of the present Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals Janet DiFiore that looked like a fraternity gathering. 

Chief Judge DiFIore, of course, started out by, saying all the correct words and doing all the corrupt deeds - like her predecessors.

On the one hand, she has started an "Excellence Initiative"

where DiFiore, a former career prosecutor, asks you to submit "anonymously" your "thoughts and comments" about how the New York court system works.

Of course, when considering that, you need to know that those who submit such "thoughts and comments" not anonymously, like I did against DiFiore to the New York State Senate

• asking to impeach her as the Westchester County DA and investigate her for commission of multiple crimes, including public corruption when she was Chairperson of the Commission for Public Ethics and rescued Governor Cuomo and his powerful donors (who nominated her to her current position, and appointed her husband Dennis Glazer to another high-standing and lucrative position, to the Commission of Betting games after that) from an investigation for public corruption

become the target of DiFiore's rage - DiFiore did not recuse, presided over my constitutional appeal from the disciplinary suspension, deeming it discretionary instead of mandatory, as it was by law, and refusing to review it on the merits, as, in her obviously unbiased view, not establishing a "substantial" constitutional violation. 

By the way, I was denied a right to appear at DiFiore's Senate Confirmation hearing and testify in person, the Senate accepted my written testimony, but failed to conduct a criminal investigation of DiFiore before confirming her as the state's Chief Judge, and failed to ask DiFiore questions I asked the Senate to ask at her confirmation hearing.

And, confirmation of DiFiore was a bit stalled, but not for any kind of vetting her background - just until Andrew Cuomo threw the N.Y. Senate a bone by nominating the Senate's own attorney, Michael Garcia (another friend of felon Sol Wachtler), to the same court.

After DiFiore, after having taken an oath of office to uphold and enforce the ENTIRE U.S. Constitution, then engaged in "picking her cases", as the then-Judge Pigott of the same court said the New York Court of Appeals doing, and, according to a 2010 rare dissenting opinion in that court, was doing for a while, in violation of the State Constitution and state statute.

DiFiore now gets to - unlawfully - choose, as she did in my case, as she would do in your case, if you report corruption to her "Excellence Initiative" and you are retaliated against, which of that U.S. Constitution is "substantial" or "insubstantial" for her to violate.

Well, she did that during her entire tenure as a DA, why should she stop now?

So, after she did away with the law license of her public critic in the Senate confirmation hearing, DiFiore continued with her corrupt ways, took for review and granted a case for her husband's agency, and appointed her husband, as a 35-year marriage anniversary, to the Constitutional Convention Commission.

It is very obvious that you cannot make a good product (be it a pie or a judge) from rotten initial materials.

Russians have a more explicit saying - you can make a candy out of shit, but it will not taste like candy.

You can nominate a corrupt person to a judicial position and call her "Honorable", but that word will be only a job description.

New York so far tries hard to mass-produce candy out of shit, with DiFiore and other top-ranking public officials appointed through corrupt cross-endorsement and nomination process where the public is not allowed any real opportunity to speak, and when critics of such process are viciously persecuted.

So far, I see that two attorneys in New York criticizing judges in motions to recuse are suspended (John Aretakis in 2008 and myself in 2015), an attorney who opposed cross-endorsement in elections of judges has been indefinitely suspended in 1992 (Doris Sassower), and the attorney who exposed the mechanism of cross-endorsements in judicial elections in New York in a book, is apparently forced to stop practicing (Susan Settenbrino, see her registration information not featuring her contact address). 

Note that the victims of judicial retaliation in New York are mostly women (3 out of 4).

By the way, let's always remember why New Yorkers even stopped electing their top court judges - because the now-felon then-Chief Judge Sol Wachtler was pissed that a "nobody" without his level of political connections, Judge Jacob Fuchsberg, was elected to the New York Court of Appeals (described here).

Wachtler

• squeezed Fuchsberg out of that court into an early retirement by nasty pranks:
• having court personnel put melting ice-cream into his file cabinets, 
• exiting an elevator where Judge Fuchsberg remained and sending it into the basement, 
• making impersonations at an all-men club that Fuchsberg was there when he wasn't and had a stance against other judges patronizing that establishment - all of that was described in the book about Wachtler that Wachtler acknowledged reading, acknowledged talking to the author and did not oppose any statements in the book as untruthful) and
• disciplinary proceedings, and
• lobbied his friends in the Senate and his friend the Governor Mario Cuomo (father of the present Governor Andrew Cuomo) to abolish elections into "his" court and replace them with nominations by his friend the Governor.  That is how Wachtler got his friend Bellacosa appointed to the court without any judicial experience - for which Bellacosa was criticized by legal scholars, which criticism of legal scholars Bellacosa (friend of DiFiore) bitterly attacked in a "law review article".

Of course, karma had it that, after Wachtler was released from federal prison, and even after his law license was inexplicably restored, only the Judge Jacob Fuchsberg Touro Law Center was unscrupulous enough to hire Wachtler as a law professor - so Wachtler now has to see his enemy honored much more than he will ever be, and has to see his name every day he goes to work, on his employer's building and paychecks.

And, let's also consider the response of DiFiore's court to the death of their own colleague, African-American and Muslim female Judge Sheila Abdas-Salaam.

Her family rejects any possibility that Judge Abdas-Salaam could commit a suicide, there is no reported cause of death, so the other alternative is homicide.

Yet, the police investigation into the death is reportedly closed.

My question is - with the corrupt public official at the helm of the court, was Judge Abdas-Salaam murdered, and is her murder being covered up with the help of DiFiore?

After all, DiFiore was already reported for covering up a murder of another African American public official - police officer Christopher Ridley - and got away with it, I will publish materials from that lawsuit, with my comments, in one of my next blogs, but I already have those materials on file.

Moreover, when DiFiore and her husband attorney Dennis Glazer was criticized in the local press of Westchester County about the allegations of a bribe her attorney husband Dennis Glazer allegedly offered for her election, but refused to pay after her election as the DA, she allowed herself to call the owner of the paper, use four-letter language at him, intimidate him and claim that her husband is on first-name basis with all U.S. Supreme Court Justices and have their direct phone lines - while appearing in front of them.


And, DiFiore's DA's office was involved in racial profiling in drug stops on Route 17, which was both common knowledge in the legal community, and was reported to me by my own clients stopped on Route 17 as to the circumstances of the stops.

And, DiFiore personally was accused of dragging her feet with the grand jury investigation in a police slaying of an African-American 69-year old former Marine Kenneth Chamberlain after he allegedly accidentally set of his LifeAid alert device.  DiFiore's police officers were alerted, came and killed him. 

Moreover, DiFiore, the "legal advisor" of that grand jury, presented the evidence in such a way and advised that grand jury in such a way, that it did not return an indictment against the slayers of Kenneth Chamberlain.  Since grand jury proceedings are secret, we do not know whether the grand jury DiFiore convened was all-white or not.

And, Westchester County, which DiFiore was an officer of for years, the county where DiFiore, Governor Cuomo and the Clintons live, was just blasted by the 2nd Circuit for their 13-year battle with HUD on the County's obstructionist, racist policies for segregation in housing.

In this context, the death, out of the blue, of the otherwise healthy, happy and accomplished only African-American Muslim judge on the Court of Appeals, and the abrupt closing of investigation into her death by NYPD right after the self-praising Law Day publications by Judge Abdas-Salaam's boss and her subordinates, sounds downright sinister to me.

DiFiore comes from a county with a history of racial profiling, has a history of using her power to cover up TWO apparent murders of African-Americans.

And, just a year after her installment on the top New York Court, the very first African American Muslim female judge, who is health, happy, recently married, accomplished, having grandkids and no mental health issues, "coincidentally" ends up in the Hudson River, dead.

Don't we have to have a little bit more scrutiny into this case than was given to it.

And shouldn't a special FEDERAL investigator be appointed to look into that case?

Or, will federal investigators and prosecutors be afraid to pursue the case given the possible rank of the people who can be involved in the death of Judge Abdas-Salaam?

And, will we EVER know the truth about the death of Judge Abdas-Salaam?

I doubt it. 

I doubt that NYPD will dare to explore a cover-up that may go all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, given that DiFiore's husband is on "firsts name basis with all U.S. Supreme Court justices and has their direct phone lines".

After all, NYPD was timid enough not to investigate the Chief Judge Sol Wachtler, even when he stalked and harassed a personal friend of the presidential couple and her minor child, George and Barbara Bushes, requiring a federal investigation and prosecution in a New Jersey federal criminal court.

And, after all, NYPD was also accused of participating in the murder of a critic of judicial corruption in New York, Chinese immigrant Sunny Sheu.  They are, of course, the best choice to investigate the potential murder of a top state court's judge.

So,

• the hush-hush way the investigation is handled,
• the history of NYPD investigating - and closing - a case where NYPD was, according to allegations of witnesses, an accomplice;
• the racist history of the County where DA DiFiore was raised and mentored;
• the racist history of DA DiFiore's own prosecutorial office;
• the racist history of DA DiFiore's cover-ups of two murders of African-Americans;
• the implausible theory of suicide it spawns about a woman who recently re-married, and, according to her friends, was happy and contented with her life;
• the previous history of non-investigation and non-prosecution by NYPD of Chief Judge Sol Wachtler,
• the extremely fast closing of the investigation into the death of Judge Abdas-Salaam, and just after DiFiore and her crew published a self-praise as to how good, clean and fair they are 

requires, to me, that the feds step in with their own investigation. 

As to the super-sweet and nauseatingly self-praising publications on Law Day by:

• Chief Judge Difiore;
• Chief Administrative Judge Marks;
• 4 heads of all 4 State Appellate Divisions

trying hard to persuade the public that New York "justice system" is the best and the fairest, after which the investigation of the death of Judge Abdas-Salaam was closed, as I said above, candy can be made out of shit, but it will not smell as sweet.

Political persecution, corruption, racism and murder are spelled all across these sweet articles of these sweet people, and I already wrote "tributes" about corruption of Karen Peters, Lawrence Marks (here, about Judge Marks' cancelling criminal UPL statutes for "public-private partnership", in exchange for "private donations", and here, about Judge Marks' further campaigning in favor of those same private-public partnerships), and Janet DiFiore, and blogs about the other three personages - Chief Judges of the Appellate Divisions 1st, 2nd and 4th Departments are to follow.

It is not surprising that people are leaving New York in flocks.  They should go even faster, since the state becomes downright scary.

If that is any consolation to anybody, there is no statute of limitations on murder, aiding and abetting a murder, and being an accomplice after the fact in a murder.

The case of Judge Abdas-Salaam, and whose path she has crossed to end up floating in the Hudson River, the first judge of that court ever to be slain, is waiting for its true investigators.

But, remember - the State of New York has a history that if a Chief Judge of that State wants something that is illegal, his subordinates cannot say "no", will never pursue him, and will always forgive him and embrace him.

As to U.S. Supreme Court justices fixing court cases, we have:

• Ruth Ginsburg's little all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii Law School in February of 2017 and private talk to the "faculty" of that school, counting among it 3 clerks of the federal judge of the 9th Circuit deciding/fixing the court case of President Trump's immigration order;
• Ruth Ginsburg's former clerk at whose wedding Ruth Ginsburg officiated is - voila - listed as the most successful female litigator (and part of the so-called Echo Chamber of lawyers whose cases are always taken by the U.S. Supreme Court)
• Sonya Sotomayor and her April 2017 trip to Albany Law School (NY), her private talks there also with the "faculty" of that school, which includes an Assistant NY Attorney General, and her later voting the same month of April, 2017 not to take the case of a New Jersey attorney against New York for discriminating against out-of-state attorneys admitted in New York, to the detriment of the public, where NY Attorney General was a party.

We also have U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun who, according to Sol Wachtler, visited him in federal prison, met with him in obviation of the federal prison visitation requirements, and promised Wachtler that "everything will be well" after his release.  Wachtler writes about it in his book "After the Madness".  And - voila - everything IS well.  The felon Wachtler was restored as an attorney, is teaching law at Touro Law School and is invited to new Court of Appeals swearing-in ceremonies.

I am not even talking about Scalia and his partiality to fishing and hunting trips offered for free by parties in litigation.

We also can fairly surmise that these judges will do anything for a freebie of, let's say, an all-expenses-paid trip overseas or a "teaching job" with the foreign government, the type of trips that Ruth Ginsburg reported in 2015 in South Korea and as Chief Judge John Roberts reported in 2015 in the Tokyo University.

I provide some tables that I created from publicly disclosed trips and extra income of U.S. Supreme Court Justices for 2015:

Teaching jobs (during work time) and board memberships:

Anthony M. Kennedy	McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific	$                   12,500.00
Anthony M. Kennedy	Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Clarence Thomas	Horatio Alger Association
Clarence Thomas	Creighton University School of Law	$                   15,000.00
Clarence Thomas	George Washington University School of Law	$                   10,000.00
Clarence Thomas	J. Reuben Clark Law School - Brigham Unviersity	$                      2,225.00
Clarence Thomas	The Daily Caller	Salary
Clarence Thomas	Liberty Consulting, Inc.	Salary and benefits
Ruth Ginsburg	Trust Article Fourth U/W Martin D. Ginsburg, Trustee
Ruth Ginsburg	University of Michingan - Tanner Lecturer	$                   10,000.00
Samuel Alito	ABA Advisory Committee on the Law Library of Congress
Samuel Alito	Member Honorary Board of the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in the United States
Samuel Alito	University of Kentucky	$                      6,000.00
Samuel Alito	Duke University Law School	$                   15,000.00
Elena Kagan	Harvard Law School
Elena Kagan	President and Fellows of Harvard College	$                   15,000.00
Stephen Breyer	Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Stephen Breyer	The Pritzker Architecture Prize
Stephen Breyer	Penguin Random House LLC, Royalty Income	$                 116,774.61
Stephen Breyer	The authors Registry, Inc; Royalty Income	$                         384.93
Stephen Breyer	Penguin Random House LLC, Nonemployee compensation	$5,000

Foreign trips

Japan	1	Roberts	foreign sponsor
South Korea	1	Ginsburg	foreign sponsor
Austria	1	Kennedy with spouse	University of the Pacific
Israel	1	Kagan	foreign sponsor
U.K.	3	Ginsburg	American College of Trial Lawyers
		Breyer	foreign sponsor
		Breyer	foreign sponsor
France	2	Breyer	foreign sponsor
		Breyer	foreign sponsor
Switzerland	1	Ginsburg	foreign sponsor
Dominican Republic	1	Alito	Federal Bar Council
	11

All trips in 2015 - mostly during working time, instead of reviewing petitions for which the same "justices" have no time, with all the book deals, speaking and teaching engagements and other freebie offers

7/7/2015	7/16/2015	Tuesday to Thursday of next week	0	University of Tokyo	Tokyo, Japan	Teaching	$            13,559.11	John Roberts	air, transportation, meals and lodging
1/23/2015	2/10/2015	Friday + next week + Monday, with spouse	7	Annenburg Foundation	Palm Springs, CA	Seminar on civics and teaching	n/a as to value of gratuities	Anthony Kennedy	Lodging, food, and transportation (self and spouse)
4/24/2015	4/25/2015	Friday and Saturday, with spouse	1	Colonial Williamsburg Foundation where the judge is a member of the Board of Trustees	Williamsburg, VA	Attend board meetings	n/a as to value of gratuities	Anthony Kennedy	Lodging, food, and transportation (self and spouse)
5/7/2015	5/10/2015	Thursday through Sunday, with spouse	2	Stanford Law School	Stanford, CA	Speaking	n/a as to value of gratuities	Anthony Kennedy	Lodging, food, and transportation (self and spouse)
7/2/2015	7/19/2015	2.5 weeks - a tour to California and Austria, with spouse	0	University of the Pacific	Salzburg, Austria; Los Angeles, CA	Teaching and speaking	n/a as to value of gratuities	Anthony Kennedy	Lodging, food, and transportation (self and spouse)
7/29/2015	7/31/2015	Wednesday through Friday, with spouse	0	Utah State Bar	Sun Valley, UT	Speaking	n/a as to value of gratuities	Anthony Kennedy	Lodging, food, and transportation (self and spouse)
10/9/2015	10/11/2015	Friday through Sunday, with spouse	1	State Bar of California	Los Angeles, CA	Speaking	n/a as to value of gratuities	Anthony Kennedy	Lodging, food, and transportation (self and spouse)
10/21/2015	10/24/2015	Wednesday through Saturday, with spouse	3	Harvard Law School	Cambridge, MA	Speaking	n/a	Anthony Kennedy	Lodging, food, and transportation (self and spouse)
11/20/2015	11/21/2015	Friday and Saturday, with spouse	1	Colonial Williamsburg Foundation where the judge is a member of the Board of Trustees	Williamsburg, VA	Attend board meetings	n/a	Anthony Kennedy	Lodging, food, and transportation (self and spouse)
2/2/2015	2/6/2015	Monday through Friday	5	Creighton University School of Law	Omaha, NE	Teaching	$            15,000.00	Clarence Thomas	Transportation, meals, accommodations
2/11/2015	2/13/2015	Wednesday through Friday	3	Yale Law School	New Haven, CT	Meetings	n/a	Clarence Thomas	Transportation, meals, accommodations
5/3/2015	5/6/2015	Sunday through Wednesday	3	New York Federal Bar Council	New York, NY	Meetings and Award Ceremony	n/a	Clarence Thomas	Transportation, meals, accommodations
10/18/2015	10/21/2015	Sunday through Wednesday	3	J. Reuben Clark School of Law - Brigham Young University	Provo, UT	Teaching and meetings	$2225 for teaching, n/a as to value of gratuities	Clarence Thomas	Transportation, meals, accommodations
2/1/2015	2/2/2015	Sunday through Monday	1	The University of Chicago Law School	Chicago, IL	Speech	n/a	Elena Kagan	Transportation, meals
2/3/2015	2/3/2015	Tuesday	1	Northwestern University School of Law	Chicago, IL	Speech	n/a	Elena Kagan	Hotel, meals
2/4/2015	2/5/2015	Wednesday through Thursday	2	Stanford Law School	Stanford, CA	Speech, Moot Court	n/a	Elena Kagan	Transportation, hotel, meals
17-Jun-15	6/17/2015	Wednesday	1	Harvard Law School	Cambridge, MA	Speech	n/a	Elena Kagan	Transportation
8/29/2015	9/5/2015	Saturday through next Saturday	0	Hebrew Univeristy of Jerusalem Faculty of Law	Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem	Speech	n/a	Elena Kagan	Transporation, Hotel, Meals
9/8/2015	9/12/2015	Saturday through next Saturday	0	Harvard Law School	Cambridge, MA	Teaching, Speech	$15,000 + n/a	Elena Kagan	Transporation, Hotel, Meals
9/29/2015	9/30/2015	Tuesday through Wednesday	0	The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law	Columbus, OH	Speech	n/a	Elena Kagan	Transporation, Hotel, Meals
11/15/2015	11/18/2015	Sunday through Wednesday	3	Harvard Law School	Cambridge, MA	Moot Court, Speech	n/a	Elena Kagan	Transporation, Hotel, Meals
2/2/2015	2/2/2015	Monday	1	New York City Bar Association	New York, NY	Participation in Ruth Bader Ginsburg lecture	n/a	Ruth Bader Ginsburg	transportation, lodging, food
2/6/2015	2/6/2015	Friday	1	University of Michigan School of Law	Ann Arbor, MI	Participant in Tanner Lecture	$10,000 for teaching + n/a as to value of gratuities	Ruth Bader Ginsburg	transportation, lodging, food
5/29/2015	5/29/2015	Friday	1	Radcliffe Institute	Cambridge, MA	Radcliffe Medal recipient	$10,000 for teaching + n/a as to value of gratuities	Ruth Bader Ginsburg	transportation, lodging, food
8/3/2015	8/7/2015	Monday through Friday	0	Supreme Court of Korea	Seoul, Korea	Participant in Legal Exchange Program	$10,000 for teaching + n/a as to value of gratuities	Ruth Bader Ginsburg	transportation, lodging, food
9/7/2015	9/10/2015	Monday through Thursday	0	American College of Trial Lawyers	London, England	Partipant in Legal Exchange Program	$10,000 for teaching + n/a as to value of gratuities	Ruth Bader Ginsburg	transportation, lodging, food
9/11/2015	9/15/2015	Friday through Tuesday	0	European Institute at the University of Zurich	Zurick, Switzerland	Participant in conversational program	$10,000 for teaching + n/a as to value of gratuities	Ruth Bader Ginsburg	transportation, lodging, food
9/29/2015	9/29/2015	Tuesday to Thursday of next week	0	Roosevelt Institute	New York, NY	Four Freedoms Award recipient	$10,000 for teaching + n/a as to value of gratuities	Ruth Bader Ginsburg	transportation, lodging, food
12/17/2015	12/17/2015	Thursday	1	New York Historical Society	New York, NY	Participant in conversational program	n/a	Ruth Bader Ginsburg	transportation, lodging, food
2/14/2015	2/21/2015	Saturday through next Saturday	5	Federal Bar Council	Casa de Campo, Dominican Republic	Conference participation	n/a	Samuel Alito	Transportation, lodging, meals
3/27/2015	3/29/2015	Friday through Sunday	1	Fordham Law School Moot Court	New York, NY	Irving Kaufman Memorial Moot Court	n/a	Samuel Alito	Transportation, lodging, meals
9/4/2015	9/11/2015	Friday through next Friday	0	American College of Trial Lawyers	London, England	UK-US Legal Exchange	n/a	Samuel Alito	Transportation, lodging, meals
9/18/2015	9/21/2015	Friday through Monday	0	Federalist Society	Dallas, TX	Speech	n/a	Samuel Alito	Transportation, lodging, meals
9/23/2015	9/25/2015	Wednesday through Friday	0	University of Kentucky	Lexington, KY	Teaching, Lecture	6000 + n/a as to value of gratuities	Samuel Alito	Transportation, lodging, meals
10/18/2015	10/24/2015	Sunday through Saturday	5	Duke Law School	Durham, NC	Teaching	15000 + n/a	Samuel Alito	Transportation, lodging, meals
11/13/2015	11/15/2015	Friday through Sunday	1	New York Historical Society	New York, NY	Film Program & Panel Discussion	n/a	Samuel Alito	Transportation, lodging, meals
11/18/2015	11/19/2015	Wednesday through Thursday	2	Notre Dame Law School	South Bend, IN	Book Presentation & Discussion	n/a	Samuel Alito	Transportation, lodging, meals
2/2/2015	2/2/2015	Monday	1	Palm Beach County Bar Assn. & Forum of the Palm Beaches	West Palm Beach, FL	Address	n/a	Sonya Sotomayor	Transportation and meals
3/12/2015	3/13/2015	Thursday through Friday	2	Davidson College	Davidson, NC	Discussions with groups of faculty and students	n/a	Sonya Sotomayor	Transporation, Lodgings and meals
3/13/2015	3/13/2015	Friday	0	New York University School of Law	New York, NY	Panel discussion on Burtn Neuborne's book "Madison's Music"	n/a	Sonya Sotomayor	Transportation and meals
4/10/2015	4/10/2015	Friday	1	Columbia University School of Law	New York, NY	Discussion with faculty and meeting with Latino Law Students Association	n/a	Sonya Sotomayor	Transportation and meals
4/17/2015	4/17/2015	Friday	1	Bryn Mawr College	Bryn Mawr, PA	Address accepting Katharine Hepburn Medal	n/a	Sonya Sotomayor	Transportation and meals
5/7/2015	5/8/2015	Thursday through Friday	2	Mt. Sinai Hospital School of Medicine	New York, NY	Address accepting honorary degree at commencement	n/a	Sonya Sotomayor	Transportation and meals
5/7/2015	5/7/2015	Thursday	0	Association of the Bar of New York	New York, NY	Address to New Lawyers Institute	n/a	Sonya Sotomayor	Meal
7/23/2015	7/23/2015	Thursday	0	Bronx Children's Museum	Bronx, NY	Participaption in Dream Big Day events	n/a	Sonya Sotomayor	Meal
9/1/2015	9/3/2015	Tuesday through Thursday	0	University of Notre Dame	South Bend, IN	Address, question and answer conversation, meeting with studens, meeting with faculty	n/a	Sonya Sotomayor	Transportation, Lodging and Meals
9/8/2015	9/8/2015	Tuesday	0	Amherst College	Amherst, MA	Question and answer conversation with faculty and students	n/a	Sonya Sotomayor	Transportation, Lodging and Meals
9/9/2015	9/9/2015	Wednesday	0	Springfield Public Forum	Springfieldl, MA	Moderated interview	n/a	Sonya Sotomayor	Transportation, Lodging and Meals
10/21/2015	10/22/2015	Wednesday through Thursday	2	Pomona College	Claremont, CA	Question and answer conversation with faculty and students	n/a	Sonya Sotomayor	Transportation, Lodging and Meals
10/22/2015	10/23/2015	Thursday through Friday	1	University of the Pacific	Stockton, CA	Participation in Advancing Women Leadership Conference	n/a	Sonya Sotomayor	Transportation, Lodging and Meals
11/16/2015	11/17/2015	Monday through Tuesday	2	University of Richmond	Richmond, VA	Question and answer conversation with faculty and students.  Meeting with Virginia Supreme Court Justices	n/a	Sonya Sotomayor	Transportation, Lodging and Meals
12/11/2015	12/11/2015	Friday	1	University Club	New York, NY	Moderated interview	n/a	Sonya Sotomayor	Transportation, Lodging and Meals
1/16/2015	1/17/2015	Friday through Saturday	1	Pritzker Foundation	New York, NY	Pritzker Prize Jury Meetings	n/a	Stephen Breyer	Round-trip train fare, meals and lodging
3/12/2015	3/12/2015	Thursday	1	Bloomberg View	New York, NY	Bloomberg View Interview	n/a	Stephen Breyer	One-way airfare, return train fare
3/12/2015	3/12/2015	Thursday	0	University Club	New York, NY	Luncheon Speaker	n/a	Stephen Breyer	Lodging
4/3/2015	4/8/2015	Friday through Wednesday	4	Marshall and the Commemoration Commission	London, England	60th Anniversary Marshall Alumni Lecture	n/a	Stephen Breyer	one-way airfare
4/9/2015	4/16/2015	Thursday through Thursday	5	Conseil D'Etat	Paris, France	Participant in a conference	n/a	Stephen Breyer	one-way (return) airfare
14-May-15	16-May-15	Thursday through Saturday	2	Pritzker Foundation	Miami, FL	Pritzker Ceremony	n/a	Stephen Breyer	roundtrip airfare, lodging
28-May-15	28-May-15	Thursday	1	Massachusetts Historical Society	Boston, MA	Lecture	n/a	Stephen Breyer	roundtrip airfare, lodging
4-Jun-15	4-Jun-15	Thursday	1	DANA-Farber Cancer Institute	Boston, MA	Annual Dinner	n/a	Stephen Breyer	roundtrip airfare, lodging
28-Jul-15	31-Jul-15	Tuesday through Friday	0	Magna Carta Trust	London, England	Magna Carta Mock Trial	n/a	Stephen Breyer	Round-trip airfare, lodging
7-Sep-15	10-Sep-15	Monday through Thursday	0	American College for Trial Lawyers Legal Exchange	London, England	ACTL event	n/a	Stephen Breyer	Round-trip airfare (self and spouse)
16-Sep-15	16-Sep-15	Wednesday	0	KNOPF	New York, NY	Book event	n/a	Stephen Breyer	one-way airfare
18-Sep-15	19-Sep-15	Friday through Saturday	0	Yale Law School	New Haven, CT	Yale Global Symposium	n/a	Stephen Breyer	Lodging, meals
21-Sep-15	25-Sep-15	Monday through Friday	0	Huntington Library, LA	Los Angeles & San Marino, CA	Speaking at Wallis Theatre (LA) and Huntington library/ Book event	n/a	Stephen Breyer	roundtrip airfare, lodging
25-Sep-15	25-Sep-15	Friday	0	SF Arts & Leisure	San Francisco, CA	Book event	n/a	Stephen Breyer	roundtrip airfare for spouse
16-Oct-15	24-Oct-15	Friday through the Saturday next week	7	Odile Jacob French Publisher	Paris, France	Book event - various speaking events	n/a	Stephen Breyer	rountrip airfare
19-Nov-15	19-Nov-15	Thursday	1	Kennedy Foundation	Washington, D.C.	Book event	n/a	Stephen Breyer	one-way airfare
20-Nov-15	20-Nov-15	Friday	1	Pilgrims Club, NYC	New York, NY	Book event	n/a	Stephen Breyer	one-way train fare
16-Dec-15	16-Dec-15	Wednesday	1	Foreign Policy Association	New York, NY	Book Event	n/a	Stephen Breyer	one-way train fare
17-Dec-15	17-Dec-15	Thursday	1	Council on foreign relations	New York, NY	Book Event	n/a	Stephen Breyer	one-way train fare

And, not to be outdone, we have DiFiore's husband Dennis Glazer who is on a first-name basis with all, but the latest U.S. Supreme Court Justices and has their direct lines, according to DiFiore's own admission, which was part of a lawsuit in, I believe, 2008, I will publish the materials from that lawsuit later.  So, whenever the U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear a case from DiFiore's court, you can safely assume that Dennis Glazer picked up the phone and did his job for his wife - at least that's what DiFiore clearly threatened on the owner of a newspaper that dared to criticize her, her husband and the then-Chief Justice Judith Kaye.  And offered him or her - what?  Another trip?

Here, we are talking the death of a top state court judge.

The circumstances are extremely murky.

The players are extremely high-ranking and known for their corruption.

Will anybody be bold enough to explore all possible links in the death of Judge Abdas-Salaam, no matter how high, and go after perpetrators if perpetrators are ascertained?  How could the police close the investigation in less than a month since her death and not explore any possible connection to the many, many decisions by Judge Abdas-Salaam over the years, which would take much more time of diligent research?

As to an overview of some of lawsuits against DiFiore over the years, and her statements in those lawsuits, as well as the contrast those lawsuits pose with DiFiore's current attempts to create a public image of a squeaky clean public official, I will post a separate blog.

Stay tuned.

Update as of May 10, 2017:

Here are the blogs about two lawsuits against DiFiore, for election fraud and press intimidation.