Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) delivered a blistering critique of the U.S. Supreme Court during an appearance Monday on MSNBC’s The Beat, accusing the justices of being “corrupt” and “compromised” while calling for sweeping ethics reforms that he said are necessary to restore public confidence in the nation’s highest court.
Booker argued that the Court has steadily shifted power away from ordinary Americans through a series of major decisions affecting issues ranging from abortion and voting rights to the authority of federal regulatory agencies. In his view, the Court has repeatedly sided with powerful interests while weakening legal protections for everyday citizens.
“We have a corrupt and compromised court in a way we’ve never seen in American history,” Booker said. “Continuing to make decisions that pull power away from everyday Americans.”
He pointed to several areas where he believes the Court has fundamentally changed the balance of power. Booker criticized past rulings involving abortion rights and voting laws, and he also referenced a recent decision that he said made it more difficult for individuals to bring legal claims against major corporations, including companies such as Monsanto and Bayer.
Booker then turned his attention to the Court’s latest rulings involving the authority of independent federal agencies. He warned that reducing the independence of those agencies could allow future presidents to exert greater political control over organizations that were designed to operate outside day-to-day partisan influence.
According to Booker, agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau play an important role in protecting consumers from corporate misconduct and maintaining competition in the marketplace.
“You have the Federal Trade Commission, that protects people against unjust mergers and corporate concentration,” Booker said. “You have the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that has already returned in the past literally tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars to consumers who have been screwed over by the big banks.”
He argued that weakening those agencies would ultimately benefit powerful political and business interests at the expense of the public.
“There’s going to be agency after agency that now is going to be at the behest of powerful people like this president, who doesn’t care about people but is going to use and abuse them and turn independent agencies into political arms,” Booker said.
Booker also renewed his long-standing call for stronger ethics rules governing Supreme Court justices, an issue that has received increased attention in recent years following reports involving travel, gifts, and financial relationships between some justices and wealthy benefactors.
“So let me just say, I say this court is corrupt, and I’m making it my mission to bring this court under ethics laws,” Booker said.
He argued that Supreme Court justices are subject to fewer ethical restrictions than many other judges throughout the country.
“Because remember, this court, unlike any other, takes gifts, unlimited gifts from billionaires, RVs, tuition, lavish vacations,” Booker said. “Billionaires have swarmed around this court, deeply influencing and compromising them.”
Booker contrasted that with the standards applied elsewhere in the judiciary, arguing that judges in lower courts can face severe consequences for ethical violations.
“In most states, with what this Supreme Court is doing, we get judges in other states literally brought out in handcuffs and put in jail,” he said.
He concluded by arguing that judicial reform has become essential to preserving public trust in the nation’s institutions.
“And so we have to make it a point to save our democracy by reforming this court,” Booker said.
