Political strategist James Carville is accusing Supreme Court justices of “corruption,” singling out one “f---ing clown” in particular.
Carville, 81, railed against the Supreme Court’s conservative justices on his Politicon podcast on Thursday, a day after the court voted 6-3 along partisan lines to weaken a key provision of the Voting Rights Act restricting racial gerrymandering and racial discrimination in voting.
“These sons of b-----s were so political, so happy to help the Republican Party any way they could,” the Democratic strategist raged. “They wrote a convoluted decision that legal scholars are still trying to wander through to think what the f--- was the rationale for this.”
“We have a corrupt Supreme Court, in my opinion,” Carville said, arguing that justices face far fewer ethics requirements than most federal officials.
“There is no reason, none, that you should have any respect or any admiration for this pack of people who take money from anybody, don’t report anything, are the only nine people in the entire f---ing federal government that operates under no ethic rule,” he said.
The Supreme Court adopted its first formal code of conduct in 2023, following scrutiny of undisclosed gifts and travel by conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
But according to New York Times Supreme Court reporter Ann E. Marimow, “The information the justices are required to report is still far less than what members of Congress have to list in their disclosures.”
Another Supreme Court reporter for the Times, Abbie VanSickle, notes that “justices aren’t required to tell the public many details about the gifts, travel and conflicts they may have.”
“What do they do?” Carville continued. “They take trips. They take money. They show up at the airport, and they fly on world-class fishing trips to Alaska. They sell their houses to people for more money to practice law before the Supreme Court. Their wives work as headhunters for law firms that practice before the Supreme Court.”
Critics have raised numerous ethical concerns with the conduct of Supreme Court justices. Samuel Alito came under scrutiny following the publication of a ProPublica report of a luxury 2008 fishing vacation he took with a billionaire who had cases before the Supreme Court, and Politico reported that Neil Gorsuch sold a $1.8 million property he co-owned to a law firm executive shortly after he was confirmed as a justice in 2017.
In addition, a former colleague of Chief Justice John Roberts’ wife claimed in 2023 that Jane Sullivan Roberts received millions in commissions for placing lawyers at firms—some of which had business before the Supreme Court. At the time, Patricia McCabe, a spokeswoman for the Supreme Court, told the New York Times that its justices obeyed financial disclosure laws and were “attentive to ethical constraints.”
On his podcast, Carville focused his ire on Roberts, saying, “Way to go, John Roberts. What a f---ing clown. What a partisan hack clown.”
Pointing to alleged corruption in the White House, Carville called the United States “one of the most corrupt countries that ever existed.”
The White House and the Supreme Court’s Public Information Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Carville proceeded to restate his case for packing the Supreme Court, a proposal that sparked an attack from Trump earlier this month.
“Wacko James Carville, a so-called Democrat ‘strategist,’ wants the Democrats to make D.C. and Puerto Rico States and, most importantly, pack the Supreme Court, putting 13 Justices on the Court,” Trump wrote on April 21. “If they pull off adding these two States, these Country Destroying Sleazebags will dominate politics in America, if we even have a Nation left, for 100 years (TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER!).”
