Dear John,

Yet another ethics scandal has erupted at the U.S. Supreme Court, this time involving an old law school classmate of mine, Clarence Thomas.

According to a jaw-dropping exposé by ProPublica, Justice Thomas has received millions of dollars worth of lavish gifts over the last 20-plus years from a Republican megadonor named Harlan Crow.

Luxury cruises on Crow’s mega-yacht. International flights on his private jet. Vacations at his tony private resort with right-wing activists like the Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo.

This is a textbook conflict of interest, and Justice Thomas didn’t disclose it.

Friends, democracy simply cannot survive without a fair and independent judiciary, and this far-right court is rapidly destroying the public trust the court relies on so that the American people will accept its rulings.

There are steps that Congress and the president can take to reform the court, but unfortunately most of the mainstream media still talks about court reform as some kind of radical left-wing idea. That’s why Inequality Media is working to educate the public about these threats and build public support for Supreme Court reform with video explainers and posts that explain the problem and what can be done about it, before it’s too late.

Will you make a donation to Inequality Media to help inform the public and demand Supreme Court reform?

Currently, all federal judges are required to follow a code of ethics — except for Supreme Court justices. As a result, Supreme Court justices don’t have to recuse themselves when conflicts of interest arise or disclose lavish gifts like the ones Thomas received from Harlan Crow.

And Thomas isn’t the only one with major ethical lapses. The New York Times recently revealed that Chief Justice John Roberts’s wife has been paid millions for work as a legal recruiter by law firms with cases before the court. Samuel Alito accepted a trip to Rome last summer from an anti-abortion legal group that feted him at a gala dinner.

However, as long as the mainstream media treats the Supreme Court as some kind of untouchable temple and discussion of court reform as a fringe idea, we’ll never get the basic ethical reforms we need. And eventually, our entire constitutional structure could be threatened by a judiciary that is losing the credibility necessary to function.

Inequality Media’s strategy is to work around the mainstream media and communicate directly with the public using viral videos and shareable explainers on social media. Our small but mighty team of incredibly talented writers, producers, and graphic artists has been able to get our content in front of millions for a tiny fraction of what it would cost if we relied on paid ads.

But as a people-powered nonprofit, we rely on your donations to keep doing this work. So I’m asking you today: Will you make a donation to Inequality Media to help inform the public and demand Supreme Court reform?

With deep gratitude and solidarity,

Robert Reich
Inequality Media