Paragon Of Virtue Clarence Thomas Has Been Given Millions Of Dollars In Value Off The Record And It Totally Hasn’t Impacted His Judging. Not One Bit.

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I told ’em I forgot to report it! (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

One of the hard questions accomplished lawyers have to ask themselves is what is really important about their careers. Is it money? Prestige? The freedom to say whatever you want, whenever, to whomever? People make career choices in like with those wants. Some make partner. Some become judges. Some partners become judges — you get my point. But what if there were a way to get all of the trade with no tradeoff? The prestige, the money, the cadence of your writing’s dicta celebrated by FedSoc suits? At least one person found the solution. Just be a judge and have somebody give you millions of dollars’ worth of luxury over a couple decades. Take the earnings gifts graciously, avoid reporting them to avoid the appearance of impropropriety, and you’re golden! That person is Clarence Thomas. And the way he went about it looks pretty illegal. Like, federally so. From ProPublica:

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For more than two decades, Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from the Dallas businessman [Harlan Crow] without disclosing them, documents and interviews show. A public servant who has a salary of $285,000, he has vacationed on Crow’s superyacht around the globe. He flies on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet. He has gone with Crow to the Bohemian Grove, the exclusive California all-male retreat, and to Crow’s sprawling ranch in East Texas. And Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.

The extent and frequency of Crow’s apparent gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court.

These trips appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures. His failure to report the flights appears to violate a law passed after Watergate that requires justices, judges, members of Congress and federal officials to disclose most gifts, two ethics law experts said. He also should have disclosed his trips on the yacht, these experts said.

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This is far from either Thomas’s or the Court’s first encounter with ethical issues — the ink is barely dry on Kathryn Rubino’s piece from Monday. But this is huge. The block was hot enough with Thomas not recusing himself from cases where he damn well should have and being married to Mrs. Insurrection. It was hard enough to not laugh at Chief Justice Roberts finger wagging at other judges to mind their Ps and Qs because of the judiciary’s current legitimacy crisis that even members of the highest court haven’t been able to avoid. At this point, it feels like a misuse of words to use terms like “impartial” and “law-abiding” when referring to members of the Court. Here’s a glimpse of the unreported job perks that Thomas has enjoyed.

In late June 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef.

If Thomas had chartered the plane and the 162-foot yacht himself, the total cost of the trip could have exceeded $500,000. Fortunately for him, that wasn’t necessary: He was on vacation with real estate magnate and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, who owned the jet — and the yacht, too.

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Crow’s bankrolling and gift giving isn’t a new trend — the uncovered aspects of the paper trail reveal that this it is deeply rooted in this nation’s history and tradition:

Soon after Crow met Thomas three decades ago, he began lavishing the justice with gifts, including a $19,000 Bible that belonged to Frederick Douglass, which Thomas disclosed. Recently, Crow gave Thomas a portrait of the justice and his wife, according to Tarabay, who painted it. Crow’s foundation also gave $105,000 to Yale Law School, Thomas’ alma mater, for the “Justice Thomas Portrait Fund,” tax filings show.

Crow said that he and his wife have funded a number of projects that celebrate Thomas. “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,” he said.

…

“When a justice’s lifestyle is being subsidized by the rich and famous, it absolutely corrodes public trust,” said Canter, now at the watchdog group CREW. “Quite frankly, it makes my heart sink.”

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Tell you one thing, I bet at least one member of the public is going to scour the cases Justice Thomas has sat on involving bribery, nondisclosure, and anything involving any of the executives or shareholders that Justice Thomas rubbed shoulders with during his bouts with luxury.

During just one trip in July 2017, Thomas’ fellow guests included executives at Verizon and PricewaterhouseCoopers, major Republican donors and one of the leaders of the American Enterprise Institute, a pro-business conservative think tank, according to records reviewed by ProPublica. The painting of Thomas at Topridge shows him in conversation with Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society leader regarded as an architect of the Supreme Court’s recent turn to the right.

In his statement to ProPublica, Crow said he is “unaware of any of our friends ever lobbying or seeking to influence Justice Thomas on any case, and I would never invite anyone who I believe had any intention of doing that.”

“These are gatherings of friends,” Crow said.

Yeah, I’m not sure if Crow gets that that’s kind of the point:

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A detail from our story today: Ted Cruz tweeted this photo of Clarence Thomas swearing in 5th Circuit Judge James Ho. Turns out this is in billionaire Harlan Crow's private library, and flight records show Crow's jet dispatched to DC and back to Dallas before + after this event https://t.co/IwNjkwRsS6

— Justin Elliott (@JustinElliott) April 6, 2023

Even if you were to bracket the, I repeat, millions of dollars’ worth of unreported gifts that have exchanged hands for around the last two decades, this is still extremely bad optics for a dude who is supposed to be a public servant. People have faced hell for much less. Remember back when Obama caught hell because he was in the same church as Jeremiah Wright? The fallout from that spawned a whole Wikipedia article — and Obama didn’t make a red cent from that association. This “gathering of friends” isn’t doing anything to help beat the Supreme Court is populated by partisan hacks allegations:

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NEW: Clarence Thomas secretly accepted lavish luxury travel for decades from a billionaire businessman/GOP donor, in apparent repeat violation of ethics law.

Fmr judge: “It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this."https://t.co/JlHQQzTGkm w/@js_kaplan @Amierjeski pic.twitter.com/yeoZsCObwY

— Justin Elliott (@JustinElliott) April 6, 2023

And while the Supreme Court does not have a binding code of ethics, they should still be bound to federal law. Where was Thomas’s textualism when it came to one of the few judicial restrictions he had to abide by? The last time anyone has taken interpretive liberties as large as Thomas has with what counts as a gift above $415 that needs to be reported, the Court decided that the right to gun ownership was a personal one. The Court has long presented itself as neutral when it comes to the law, but Clarence’s behavior suggests that he thinks himself above it. I can get why folks would want someone who can’t follow laws being on the highest court of them.

This is beyond party or partisanship. This degree of corruption is shocking – almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached.

Barring some dramatic change, this is what the Roberts court will be known for: rank corruption, erosion of democracy, and the stripping of human rights. https://t.co/t8fnGLVhbV

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 6, 2023

In Closing:

I keep seeing strange takes from lawyers suggesting caution before condemning Clarence Thomas and, well, look, if my girl Sonia is also secretly living up the high life in the offseason on a billionaire's dime then impeach her too.

But she isn't. He is and he isn't even sorry.

— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) April 6, 2023

Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire [ProPublica]

Earlier: Dems Consider Going After Supreme Court’s Money If They Don’t Get An Actual Ethics Rule
We’re Not ‘Partisan Hacks,’ Says Partisan Hack At Partisan Event

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

Topics

Clarence Thomas, Courts, Harlan Crow, Supreme Court