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A scathing report shows that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was ready to quit over low pay before taking gifts from conservatives.
According to reports, the controversy around Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is growing more turbulent as it was revealed that he had a conversation with a Republican lawmaker over 20 years ago that he would step down if he couldn’t get a higher salary. The conversation occurred between Thomas and former GOP Representative Cliff Stearnes after both attended a conservative conference in Georgia in 2000, with Thomas saying “one or more justices will leave soon.”
“I intend to look into a bill to raise the salaries of members of The Supreme Court,” Stearns said in a letter to Thomas afterward. “As we agreed, it is worth a lot to Americans to have the Constitution properly interpreted.” At the time, Thomas’ salary as a Justice was $173,000 but he had a substantial amount of debt and was frustrated as he also had a young grandnephew to raise without seeing any potential for a raise. His contemplation left many Republicans who counted on Thomas’ right-wing jurisprudence in the Court concerned. “His importance as a conservative was paramount,” Stearns told a reporter when contacted. “We wanted to make sure he felt comfortable in his job, and he was being paid properly.”
Thomas has been under fire in recent months as it was discovered that he was lavished with luxury vacations and other pricey gifts from conservative millionaire benefactors such as Harlan Crow, who was found to have bought three properties from the Supreme Court Justice (including his mother’s house) and paid for his grandnephews’ private school education. Both Crow and Thomas have consistently denied any impropriety, but the revelation stained the reputation of the Supreme Court further as many viewed it to be acting predominately in the interests of the right wing, particularly with the decision in the Dobbs case pushed through by Justice Samuel Alito last year.
The past allegations against Thomas compelled Justice John Roberts to “fairly, impartially, and diligently” call for a code of ethics for the higher court, spurred on by the demands of Democratic lawmakers. It also comes as these lawmakers have been calling for Thomas to recuse himself from hearing the upcoming criminal case against former President Donald Trump for his alleged role in provoking the events of the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
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A new explosive report finds that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas attended at least two high-profile summits held by the secretive Koch donor network.
According to reports, Thomas attended two events held by the network, formally known as Stand Together and overseen by Charles and David Koch. He didn’t disclose being at these events to a judicial ethics committee. Among the events the judge attended was a private dinner in Palm Springs, California, in 2018, which saw him arrive thanks to a private Gulfstream G200 jet. Thomas’ presence put him in the “extraordinary position” of acting as a “fundraising draw,” breaking numerous federal rules that prohibit judges from engaging in political activity such as fundraising.
The new reports comes after it was discovered that Thomas was the recipient of luxury vacations from real estate billionaire Harlan Crow and other rich corporate benefactors. In addition, Crow (who was also found to be a collector of Nazi memorabilia) was also found to have paid tuition for a child Thomas was raising as his son in addition to buying Thomas’ mother’s house. He also attended 25 years worth of the all-male retreats known as the Bohemian Grove, which includes all of the most important political and corporate figures in the world.
The news of Clarence Thomas attending the top-tier donor events is staggering considering how much the Koch brothers (David Koch died in 2019) and other conservative donors have impacted the decisions of cases that have come before the Supreme Court within the last 15 years – some at their behest. The habitual disregard for the ethics laws in place includes Thomas not having disclosed any of these vacations and other gifts as required.
“What we’re seeing emerge is someone who is living his professional life in a way that’s seeing these extrajudicial opportunities as a perk of the office,” said Charles Geyh, a judicial law expert at the University of Indiana’s law school, according to ProPublica. The news leaves the justice’s impartiality further in doubt. “Parties litigating in the court before Justice Thomas don’t know the extent of Thomas’ relationship with the parties on the other side,” said Hofstra University law professor James Sample. “You have to be pretty cynical to not think that’s a problem.”
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A report reveals that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has received more secret gifts from billionaire donors including 38 vacations.
The new report details the massive amount of gifts of luxury travel that Thomas has received over three decades including 38 lavish destination vacations. These trips include 26 private jet flights and eight helicopter trips. Other gifts included VIP passes to college and professional sporting events, and an open invitation to a super-exclusive golf club perched on the Atlantic coast known as “The Floridian”.
These gifts have reportedly come from an array of billionaires, including Harlan Crow, who has been in the news constantly after it was discovered that he bestowed Thomas with numerous gifts in the form of private flights and purchasing his mother’s home in Georgia. Other billionaire donors include former Berkshire Hathaway executive David Sokol and the late H. Wayne Huizenga, the man behind national chains Blockbuster and Waste Management whom he met through the exclusive nonprofit Horatio Alger Association. Another, oil magnate Paul “Tony” Novelly, is another donor noted in the report.
The report goes on in detail about the extent that these donors gave to Thomas, and how they benefited from being in proximity to him. One example shows that the Supreme Court Justice granted the Horatio Alger Association unprecedented access to the court for members in its Great Hall as a way to fundraise for the group – going against explicit judiciary guidelines. Another instance describes Sokol addressing a group of former association scholarship recipients, and making a direct reference to a case that was before the Supreme Court concerning President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program.
“In my career, I don’t remember ever seeing this degree of largesse given to anybody,” said Jeremy Fogel, a former federal judge who served on the committee that reports judicial financial disclosures. “I think it’s unprecedented.” The news adds to more controversy surrounding Thomas, as his financial disclosures on record do not contain any of this information.
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The Supreme Court struck down affirmative action programs in two cases presented before it, leading to a torrent of outrage over the unprecedented actions.On Thursday (June 29th), the Supreme Court handed down a 6-3 decision ruling that the affirmative action policies at the University of North Carolina and Harvard University were unconstitutional. The verdicts dealt a blow to five decades’ worth of efforts to boost more diversity through programs taking applicants’ race into account when applying to colleges and universities nationwide for decades. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion that the programs “unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful endpoints.”
Justice Clarence Thomas, the Black conservative who sided with the majority including Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Comey Barrett, and Samuel Alito, wrote in his concurring opinion that the policies “fly in the face of our colorblind Constitution. He continued: “Despite the extensive evidence favoring the colorblind view, as detailed above, it appears increasingly in vogue to embrace an ‘antisubordination’ view of the 14th Amendment: that the Amendment forbids only laws that hurt, but not help, Blacks,” Justice Thomas wrote. “Such a theory lacks any basis in the original meaning of the 14th Amendment.”The decision caused immediate backlash and concern from those opposed to the decision. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who had recused herself from the Harvard case as she served on their Board of Overseers prior to her SCOTUS appointment, wrote a blistering and incisive dissenting opinion aimed at Thomas and Roberts’ opinions. “With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat,” she wrote, “But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”
As the news sunk in, more reactions including that of President Joe Biden came forth condemning the ruling and expressing the effects it will have in the future. Here’s a selection of the more prominent.
1. Michael Eric Dyson
The esteemed professor and author took the conservative Thomas to task, noting his own rise to the court through affirmative action and calling his role in the verdict “a withering betrayal of justice & democracy.”
2. uché blackstock, md
Well-known for her efforts to boost diversity in medical schools and her work to get more attention paid to Black communities by the medical industry, Dr. Blackstock pointed out how the decision will affect applicants from the community going forward.
3. Michael Harriot
Writer and contributor to The Grio, Harriot reminds readers who will truly benefit from the decisions handed down.
4. Deepa Iyer
The author and activist highlights the dissenting opinion by Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
5. Olivia Truffaut-Wong
The journalist observes with dismay how Asian students who took part in the lawsuit leading to these cases brought before the Supreme Court unwittingly played into white supremacy.
6. Nikole Hannah-Jones
The creator behind The 1619 Project mused about how this decision falls in line with the worst of American history.
7. Joyce Vance
The former federal prosecutor under the Obama presidential administration called attention to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissenting opinion, particularly the opening.
8. Melissa Murray
The New York University law professor highlights another part of Justice Sotomayor’s dissent, and explains how she pointed to the court’s conservative majority being so eager to overturn precedent.
9. Barack Obama
Former President Barack Obama weighs in and amplifies former First Lady Michelle Obama’s statement.
10. President Joe Biden
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The billionaire “friend” and Republican donor who treated Clarence Thomas to luxury trips is now embroiled in another scandal over his purported collection of Nazi memorabilia.
According to reports, the Supreme Court Justice and his wife, Ginni, have enjoyed luxury trips courtesy of Texas real estate magnate Harlan Crow for close to two decades. But a source has disclosed that Crow, who also owns an extensive collection of historical artifacts at his home, also has in that collection a disturbing amount of memorabilia from the Nazi regime.
In the article published last Friday (April 7th), the source recounted their shock at seeing the mementos while attending a function at the Republican megadonor’s home in Dallas. “It would have been helpful to have someone explain the significance of all the items. Without that context, you sort of just gasp when you walk into the room,” they said. They went on to describe three paintings in the collection, “something done by George W. Bush next to a Norman Rockwell next to one by Hitler.”
Apparently, Crow owns two landscape paintings done by the Nazi dictator in addition to other Nazi memorabilia which includes a signed copy of Mein Kampf, table linen, and a teapot owned by Hitler adorned with the regime’s insignia of an eagle with talons grasping the swastika. The rest of the collection also features artifacts from the antebellum period as well as statues of dictators such as Joseph Stalin and Josip Tito of Yugoslavia in a space noted as the “Garden of Evil” in a piece from 2014 and the death mask of Lakota nation leader Sitting Bull.
As word spread online of the billionaire’s disturbing collection, a collection of friends from the conservative and far-right world leaped to his defense on social media. These included the notorious scientific racist lecturer and The Bell Curve author Charles Murray, whom it was later revealed enjoys close ties to Crow through a think-tank partnership.
Justice Thomas contested the initial reports of his acceptance of those trips and not declaring it as required by a law instituted after the Watergate scandal. Crow issued a statement after the reports came out, claiming that he and his wife “have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue.” Crow has backed numerous cases that have come up before the Supreme Court, and the discovery of these lavish trips has many legal experts alleging that Thomas broke the law in a conflict of interest.
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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginny Thomas, are accused of hiding a slate of luxury trips gifted to them by a wealthy GOP donor according to a new report. These trips took place several times over the past two decades but were never reported on tax filings.
Pro Publica published an in-depth report regarding the trips that Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife took on behalf of real estate magnate, Harlan Crow, who is from Dallas, Texas. Crow is a known GOP donor with deep pockets, having delivered millions in donations to several Republican Party and conservative campaigns.
In the aforementioned report, the publication reveals that the Thomases traveled to faraway destinations such as Indonesia on Crow’s dime, which included island-hopping on a superyacht. Pro Publica said of one 2019 trip the couple took, the costs would’ve gone just north of $500,000.
It appears that Thomas has taken annual trips with Crow but failed to disclose details according to the investigative report. Along with the yacht trips, Thomas has flown on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000, an aircraft that costs range between $26 to as high as $50 million. Thomas has also traveled to the all-male exclusive retreat, the Bohemian Grove alongside Crow and spent time at Crow’s East Texas ranch. Further, Thomas takes an annual week-long summer trip to Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.
The failure to disclose the gifts might be a violation of a law passed after the Watergate scandal in the 1970s which requires justices, judges, federal officials, and members of Congress to disclose large financial gifts and expensive trips under the guise of gifts.
Pro Publica obtained a statement from Crow explaining the nature of the gifts. A portion of it can be read below:
On a number of occasions, we have made contributions to projects celebrating the life and legacy of Justice Thomas, just as we have done with other great leaders and historically significant figures. He and Ginni never asked us to do any of this. We did so because we believe Justice Thomas to be one of the greatest Americans of our time, and we believe it is important to make sure as many people as possible learn about him, remember him, and understand the ideals for which he stands. We will continue to support projects that advance this goal.
This report comes as Thomas’ wife, Ginny, is under heavy scrutiny due to her ties to conservative groups and her position as an activist among her political contemporaries. Crow has also donated to an organization helmed by Mrs. Thomas.
Justice Clarence Thomas did not respond to the publication’s questions.
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