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Hi,
Another bombshell Supreme Court scandal just broke — and Congress is finally taking action to do something about it.
The Guardian newspaper caught an aide to Justice Clarence Thomas taking direct cash payments through Venmo from several top lawyers with business before the high court — including one who just successfully argued the case that ended affirmative action in higher education.
Apparently the money was intended to cover the costs of a Christmas party hosted by Thomas himself.1 Even George W. Bush’s White House ethics lawyer said, “There’s no excuse for it. His Christmas party should not be paid for by lawyers.”
The good news is that the U.S. Senate has announced that they will vote next week on legislation to impose a binding code of ethics on the Supreme Court. Now we need to ramp up our grassroots campaign to get this bill passed into law.
This is far from the first time Thomas has been in the spotlight for unethical conduct. Republican billionaire Harlan Crow has been allowing Thomas and his family to live to like the superrich for two decades — paying for his relative’s elite private school education, buying property from him way above market value, and lavishing the Thomases with luxury vacations and gifts.2,3,4 None of it was ever reported.
What’s more, there’s real evidence that all this money influenced Thomas’s rulings, after he flipped his vote on a major legal precedent that would gut regulatory enforcement of environmental, public health, worker safety protections, and more.5
And now we have proof that some of Washington’s most high-powered corporate lawyers were effectively stuffing wads of cash in Justice Thomas’s pockets through Venmo.
Thomas isn’t the only Supreme Court justice in the news for hiding gifts, sweetheart real estate deals, and conflicts of interest. Since these scandals began erupting around the court, we’ve mobilized more than 100,000 people to demand Congress impose a code of ethics on the Court. Now it’s happening.
Next week, a key Senate committee will vote on The Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act, a bill that would require justices to follow a clear code of ethics just like every other federal judge and the other two branches of government. But this bill won’t become law unless we can keep building public pressure.
With gratitude for all that you do,
Tihi and the team at Demand Progress Action
Sources:
1. The Guardian, "Lawyers with supreme court business paid Clarence Thomas aide via Venmo," July 12, 2023.
2. ProPublica, "Clarence Thomas Had a Child in Private School. Harlan Crow Paid the Tuition." May 4, 2023.
3. ProPublica, "Billionaire Harlan Crow Bought Property From Clarence Thomas. The Justice Didn’t Disclose the Deal." April 13, 2023.
4. ProPublica, "Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire," April 7, 2023.
5. The Lever, "Clarence Thomas Reversed Position After Gifts And Family Payments," May 9, 2023.
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