... here's a reminder: https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/04/14/the-case-of-steven-donziger-supreme-court-liberals-help-turn-judges-into-prosecutors/
Once Chevron started to lose the case in Ecuador, a venue it had chosen in the mistaken belief that local courts would be friendlier than those in the U.S., “they came back to the United States where I live in New York and began to sue me in a civil legal case…for $60 billion,” Donziger, who is not rich, told me in an interview some months back. Chevron pursued him relentlessly, alleging fraud and bribery on Donziger’s part. Donziger was also disbarred. Along the way, Chevron bankrupted Donziger. Later, after an unprecedented order to Donziger which the attorney refused in order to protect his clients, Kaplan charged him with contempt. The message to any environmentally active lawyer was clear: if you think you’ve won against a giant oil company, think again, because we will destroy you.
Donziger appealed his criminal contempt conviction from Kaplan to the high court, arguing “that his prosecution violated his rights under the U.S. constitution because private lawyers appointed by a federal judge handled the case against him,” Reuters reported March 27, the day the supreme court declined to consider Kaplan’s ruling. “Two members of the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh dissented…” against the court’s refusal to consider Donziger’s case. And when you have to turn to very far-right justices to uphold the constitution as a shield against judicial abuse of individual rights, you’re in pretty sad shape. But that’s where we are in the U.S., and those three “liberal” judges are to blame. They could have swung the vote the other way, had they so chosen.
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