Trump isn't going to have to worry about one vote on the Supreme Court, apparently. For example, should any of the emolument suits against him advance that far. It seems Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch is plenty happy to help his benefactor make money off of the presidency. In the immediate term, however, there are more pressing issues for Trump looming before the court, and Gorsuch showing his cards rather brazenly.
WASHINGTON — Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, President Trump’s Supreme Court appointee, is scheduled to address a conservative group at the Trump International Hotel in Washington next month, less than two weeks before the court is set to hear arguments on Mr. Trump’s travel ban.
Stephen Gillers, an expert on legal ethics at New York University, questioned the justice’s decision to speak at the hotel, which is at issue in lower-court cases challenging the constitutionality of payments to Mr. Trump’s companies.
“At this highly divisive political moment, especially as many Trump decisions are likely soon to reach the court’s docket, one just days later, a healthy respect for public confidence in the court should have led Justice Gorsuch to demur,” he said. […]
Justice Gorsuch is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the “Defending Freedom Luncheon” on Sept. 28 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Fund for American Studies, which says it supports “principles of limited government, free-market economics and honorable leadership” through academic and fellowship programs.
Do you even need to ask where the Fund for American Studies gets much of its money? Probably not, but yes, it's the Kochs. Of course, the Times gives us a dash of both-sides-ism, telling us that "Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor, all members of the court’s liberal wing, have spoken before the American Constitution Society, a liberal group." Because a group with a mission of "promot[ing] the vitality of the U.S. Constitution and the fundamental values it expresses: individual rights and liberties, genuine equality, access to justice, democracy and the rule of law" is just as shadowy as anything the far-right is doing.
Gorsuch can do this, or pretty much anything he wants, because the Supreme Court is not bound to any code of ethics, including the code of conduct that applies to all lower federal judges. The Supremes are indeed supreme in that—they can pretty much do as they please politically, for life. Unless the House of Representatives decides to impeach. Yeah. Right.
He's kicking it up a notch, however, by actually doing a fundraiser for a Koch-backed organization that will also financially benefit the sitting president. It's just all so cozy.