This isn’t the first time the conservative justice has faced scrunity over his ethics.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is in the hot seat over his relationship with Republican donor Harlan Crow and financial disclosures.
In what marked another revealing ProPublica report, Crow paid tuition for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ grandnephew, Mark Martin. But the pair go way back: For more than two decades, Thomas has been accepting luxurious trips from the Texas billionaire. This included going island hopping with the billionaire in Indonesia on a vacation that would have otherwise cost him more than $500,000 if he had paid on his own (at least five similar trips took place, according to ProPublica’s reporting).
But that’s not all: During this time period, he has also been disclosing that his family received rental income totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the firm called Ginger, Ltd., Partnership, which no longer exists. These revelations are only surfacing now because Thomas either omitted them entirely or didn’t give the complete picture on his financial disclosure forms that he’s required to submit each year, which could be a violation of a federal ethics law.
Now, the justice’s actions have drawn criticism from both conservatives and liberals alike. While former Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman warned that Thomas “should not be allowed anywhere near a judicial decision,” Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went ahead and called for Thomas’s impeachment.
Shortly after the report broke, Thomas acknowledged that he did, in fact, go on “family trips” with Crow but said that he wasn’t required to disclose them at the time but he hasn’t addressed some of his other questionable actions, like his real estate deal with Crow worth more than $100,000 — more on that below. Now, Senate Democrats are calling on Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to investigate these findings but it remains to be seen if Roberts takes action.
Amid the fallout, here’s a look at what legal experts have to say, and other surprising details from the ProPublica report.
What did ProPublica reveal about Clarence Thomas’ gifts?
Though the ProPublica report states it’s unclear how many times Thomas failed to disclose free trips, a look at flight records and dozens of interviews suggest that the justice was a regular passenger on Crow’s luxury trips. This included spending virtually every summer at the GOP donor’s private resort in New York’s Adirondacks and vacations at Crow’s ranch in East Texas. The judge has apparently also been known to go with Crow to the Bohemian Grove, an exclusive all-male retreat/campground in California. (The location is well-known for hosting politicians and business leaders, and was the site of a pivotal meeting in 1942 for the Manhattan Project.)
Since the ProPublica report came out, the nonprofit also found that one of Crow’s real estate companies bought three properties belonging to Thomas’ family, including a house where the justice’s elderly mother was living at the time. On top of this, The Washington Post reported that the justice has also continued to disclose between $50,000 and $100,000 in income from the real estate firm, Ginger, Ltd., Partnership, even though it closed its doors in 2006 (it has been replaced by a new firm that goes by a similar name but it’s not mentioned in Thomas’ records).
The revelations didn’t stop there: ProPublic published a report on May 4 that revealed that Crow had paid for Martin’s boarding school tuition at both Hidden Lake Academy in Georgia and his alma mater Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia. For context, Thomas was the legal guardian of Martin at the time, who he helped raise.
Even if some of these findings can be chalked up to a paperwork error, this isn’t the first time Thomas has faced scrutiny over his financial practices. Last year, it was disclosed that he didn’t step away from election cases after his wife, a conservative activist, tried to urge lawmakers to overturn Trump’s loss in 2020 to President Joe Biden.
Both Crow and Thomas have defended some of his actions. For instance, the justice said he was advised not to report his extravagant vacations because they were considered “personal hospitality,” but he has yet to address his property transaction with Crow. “I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines,” he said after the ProPublica report first came out. In response to the tuition payments, Crow’s office said he had “supported many young Americans through scholarship and other programs.” A friend and defender of Thomas, conservative lawyer Mark Paoletta also to Thomas’ defense on the issue, saying that Martin didn’t qualify as a legal dependent under the federal ethics laws.
How do Harlan Crow and Clarence Thomas know each other?
In political circles, Crow’s a well-known and connected Republican donor. During one 2017 trip to Crow’s Topridge resort, Thomas was a guest alongside other major GOP donors and members of the conservative pro-business think tank, the American Enterprise Institute.
What’s more, Crow told ProPublic that he met Thomas in 1996 — five years after the justice joined the high court. Though some allies say the pair are merely friends, the billionaire has been very generous towards Thomas over the years. For instance, in 2011, Politico reported that Crow had donated half a million dollars to a Tea Party group founded by Ginni Thomas. In reality, the Texas businessman has likely given much more: According to publicly disclosed political contributions, he’s donated $10 million to Republican political groups.
But in a recent statement made to ProPublica, Crow insists that he has “never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue.” He also defended his gifts to the conservative judge: “Hospitality we have extended to the Thomas’s over the years is no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends.”
Did Clarence Thomas break any rules?
Some experts seem to think he did. Unlike with members of Congress, there aren’t a lot of restrictions on what gifts justices can (or cannot) accept, but they’re generally required to publicly report “anything of value” they receive worth more than $415. There are some exceptions to this rule, however, such as someone hosting a justice at their property.
Even though the federal judiciary recently beefed up transparency requirements for judges, existing exceptions still don’t apply for transportation, like the private-jet flights that Thomas took on his trips with Crow. “If Justice Thomas received free travel on private planes and yachts, failure to report the gifts is a violation of the disclosure law,” Kedric Payne, a senior director for ethics at the nonprofit government watchdog Campaign Legal Center, told ProPublica.
This latest story will likely ramp up calls to further tighten ethics codes for Supreme Court justices and create more transparency around what gifts they can (or cannot) receive, which could prove to be an uphill battle.
“One of the long-running dynamics that makes it challenging when we talk about Supreme Court ethics is that short of impeachment, there’s not really disciplinary measures in place for Supreme Court justices,” policy analyst David Janofsky told Vox.
