Justice Clarence Thomas? At the center of an ethics scandal? You don't say!

Thursday, April 6, 2023
BY JULIA CLAIRE & CROOKED MEDIA

- Right wing commentator Anna Perez ([link removed]) talking about the depiction of…Princess Peach in the new Super Mario Bros. movie…

Folks, you’re not gonna believe this, but Clarence Thomas did something really unethical.

* For over 20 years, Clarence Thomas has accepted luxury trips almost annually(!) from real-estate billionaire and Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow—a man who also has substantial business before the Supreme Court. We’re talking yachts, private jets, island hopping, personal chefs. According to ProPublica’s investigative reporting ([link removed]) , the eye-popping value and frequency of Crow’s gifts to Thomas “have no known precedent” in the modern history of the United States Supreme Court.


* Neither Thomas nor the Supreme Court have commented on the story, but Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, sure as hell did. Excoriating Thomas, Durbin said, “The highest court in the land shouldn’t have the lowest ethical standards,” and called his behavior “simply inconsistent with the ethical standards the American people expect of any public servant, let alone a Justice on the Supreme Court.”

* For comparison, the “Gifts Rule” for public officials like members of Congress ([link removed].) is that they are only allowed to accept gifts valued at less than $50, and no more than $100 from a single donor in one year. The total value of two decades of trips is certainly in the millions, if not tens of millions, and Thomas never reported them as part of his annual financial disclosure statements. The law clearly requires disclosure for private jet flights, which Thomas appears to have (repeatedly) violated. Multiple ethics law experts have opined that the yacht cruises also should have been disclosed.

This raises larger questions about the Supreme Court, and Thomas’s history of ethical misconduct within it.

* The Supreme Court is the only judicial body in the country not under the purview of a code of ethics. Which poses the question: Why? Why is the most powerful court in the United States, which has lately been in the habit of stripping rights from marginalized people and siding with corporations and the ultra-powerful, exempt from basic ethics rules that apply to all other civil servants?

* Obviously, this is not Clarence Thomas’s first rodeo when it comes to ethical misconduct. Even apart from his high-profile harassment of Anita Hill, Thomas’s ultra-MAGA wife Ginni very famously encouraged and participated in Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, after which Thomas cast the sole dissenting vote against forcing witnesses to disclose evidence to the House January 6 Committee. But Justice Thomas is not simply one bad egg. Conservative justices reportedly prayed with evangelical anti-choice groups before the monumental decision to overturn Roe v. Wade ([link removed]) . Justice Samuel Alito reportedly shared information related to Burwell v. Hobby Lobby with a conservative activist ([link removed]) in advance of the court’s decision.

There have been rumblings of bipartisan support for a Supreme Court code of ethics in the halls of Congress in the past, but thus far the idea has been met with resistance (and not just from Republicans who think Thomas’s corruption is awesome). It would “raise an array of legal questions” including how such a code would be enforced or whether the Court itself would accept it at all. How effective is our system of “checks and balances” if one branch of government effectively answers to no one?

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Two of the three Democratic members of the Tennessee General Assembly targeted by the chamber’s Republicans for protesting gun violence on the House floor have been expelled. The legislature expelled Rep. Justin Jones in a 72-25 vote ([link removed]) , and Rep. Justin Pearson in a 69-26 vote, but failed to reach the two-thirds majority needed to expel Rep. Gloria Johnson. Pearson and Jones are Black, while Johnson is White. The completely farcical proceedings are just the latest controversy in the heavily gerrymandered state where the Republican majority is exerting tyrannical control. Pearson called out the hypocrisy of persecuting Democrats for protesting unjust laws “in a country built on a protest,” ([link removed]) where the 4th of July is a national holiday. And on top of GOP bad faith,
their power-play here will probably backfire: Jones and Pearson can win back their seats, and now the whole country knows how Republicans respond to school gun massacres: by silencing protesters, expelling elected officials, and being racist. This has drawn national attention to the Volunteer State as it grapples with the deadliest school shooting in its history. It’s no surprise that the three members are from Tennessee’s three largest cities (Nashville, Memphis, and Knoxville, respectively) as Republicans have repeatedly tried to disenfranchise or invalidate the votes of the most densely-populated districts/states/regions because they’re full of Democrats. Protestors stood outside the Tennessee State House shouting “Fuck you, fascists!” ([link removed]) and we’re right there with them.

The Biden administration proposed new regulations on Thursday that would allow schools to prohibit transgender athletes from participating in competitive high school and college sports, but would not allow blanket or categorical exclusion of trans athletes ([link removed]) , as a number of states have adopted. Weird and super fucking disappointing thing for Biden to have “compromised” on when he didn’t have to!


Gov. Brad Little (R-ID) signed a first-of-its-kind anti-choice law in the post-Roe landscape which will make it illegal for any adult to help a minor obtain an abortion without parental consent ([link removed]) . The law is a legal work-around to sidestep the constitutional right to interstate travel.


The International Monetary Fund’s chief executive said Thursday that the world economy is expected to grow less than three percent this year ([link removed]) , down from 3.4 percent last year, which will increase the risk of hunger and global poverty.


Trump sycophant and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan has issued a subpoena for a former prosecutor in the Manhattan DA’s office ([link removed]) , the latest in Republican retaliatory efforts against those trying to hold Trump accountable.


Anti-vaxx princeling Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has entered the Democratic presidential primary race ([link removed]) .


The FDA revoked the approval of the only drug on the market meant to reduce the risk of preterm birth ([link removed]) , a condition which disproportionately affects Black women.


Over 200 Russian journalists and activists signed an open letter demanding the immediate release of the Wall Street Journal reporter ([link removed]) who has been detained by the Kremlin.


An atheist prisoner in West Virginia has sued the state’s corrections agency, accusing it of violating his constitutional rights ([link removed]) by requiring Christian-affiliated programming as a condition of his release.

The Supreme Court’s rogue conservative majority has issued a number of decisions in the last few terms expanding religious rights (when the religion is Christianity, that is) even when it seems to butt up against separation of church and state. Next week, an Oklahoma school board will consider whether to approve the first taxpayer-funded religious charter school ([link removed]) . Let me repeat: taxpayer-funded religious charter school. If it is approved, the measure will break the establishment clause of the First Amendment wide open and could lead to even more frightening challenges. Last June, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled that public tuition-assistance funds can be used for religious schools, laying the groundwork for (predominantly Christian) groups to try to erode the establishment clause even further.
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Vice President Kamala Harris will announce an agreement for the largest community solar effort in United States history when she visits Georgia ([link removed]) . The plant will be able to power 140,000 homes and businesses.


The Supreme Court refused to reinstate a West Virginia law barring transgender girls from playing on female sports teams ([link removed]) .

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) traveled to Florida to meet with students from the New College of Florida, the liberal arts college targeted by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) ([link removed]) .
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