‘Chief Justice Roberts, You Are Failing the Court’: Ari Melber Issues Rare Direct Rebuke Amid Ethics Scandals

Ari Melber issued one of his most forceful denunciations of a public official on Thursday, taking aim at Chief Justice John Roberts over his response – or lack thereof – to multiple ethics lapses on the Supreme Court.

This week, ProPublica ran a story about Justice Samuel Alito’s failure to disclose a fishing trip to Alaska that he took using billionaire Paul Singer’s private jet. Not only did Alito not disclose the gift, he did not recuse himself from a subsequent case heard by the court in which Singer’s company was a party.

The revelation comes weeks after Justice Clarence Thomas was found to have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in luxury travel thanks to Republican megadonor Harlan Crow. Thomas also sold real estate to Crow, including the house in which his mother lives, seemingly rent-free at the property Crow now owns.

Elsewhere, Justice Neil Gorsuch sold property to the head of a major law firm nine days after he was confirmed to the Supreme Court in 2017. The property had been on the market for nearly two years.

These disclosures have prompted many to call on Roberts to overhaul the court’s ethics rules. He has pledged to address the matter to avoid future scandals, but has little to show for it so far.

On Thursday’s edition of The Beat, Melber, who seldom directly addresses officials on his show, had strong words for the chief justice.

“So far he has not taken the action,” the host said. “He’s the one person with the power to bring the justices together, to use the role of chief justice to do more, to force transparency, and to announce in binding ways what he’s doing, which is exactly what they always say everyone who’s judged by the court is supposed to do.”

Melber then said it would be a “dream” to interview Roberts and then offered a full-throated castigation of him:

But fidelity to this job – journalism and being straight with you – goes above whatever he thinks about whatever we do here. So, I have to say publicly, now that it’s been a little time and the scandals keep breaking and he has done nothing binding, Chief Justice Roberts, you are failing the court and your own stated ethical guidelines for it. It is past time to exact, but it’s not too late to act.

Watch above via MSNBC.

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