Gifts to Clarence Thomas

[Gunnar]

The only other person to resign from the Supreme Court was Abe Fortas, and what Clarence Thomas is guilty of far exceeds what Fortas was accused of.

True! I suspect, though, that even back then, the Republicans might not have pushed for forcing Fortas' resignation had he been a Republican. But, on the other hand, they did go along with eventually forcing Nixon out of office, so there might have been enough integrity left in the GOP at that time that Fortas would have been ousted, even if he had been Republican. I have no doubt, though, that the fact that he was Democrat made the Republicans only all the more eager to go along with forcing his resignation for what he had done.

[¥akaSteelhead]

Apparently the price for a the Supreme Court justice is around 250-500K

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-ba ... on-report/

Too bad the GOP has no qualms about compromised sitting the Supreme Court justice, and will do nothing about the compromised jurists.

[Gunnar]

Apparently the price for a the Supreme Court justice is around 250-500K

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-ba ... on-report/

Too bad the GOP has no qualms about compromised sitting the Supreme Court justice, and will do nothing about the compromised jurists.

It's not just "too bad!" It is an unmitigated disaster!

[Gunnar]

Lawrence: Clarence Thomas should follow Abe Fortas’ example and resign from the Supreme Court

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell provides insight into the resignation of Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas, who resigned from the bench in May 1969 for reasons not nearly as legally incriminating as Clarence Thomas' failure to disclose a $133,363 real estate sale with GOP billionaire mega donor Harlan Crow.

What a tremendous contrast between Abe Fortas and Clarence Thomas! Abe Fortas resigned, not because he actually did anything for which he could be prosecuted, but because he wanted to avoid even the mere appearance of possible ethics violation that might cast doubt on the integrity and impartiality of the court, while Thomas demonstrably and flagrantly violated the law and lied about it! Another sterling example that Thomas should have followed is Doug Emhoff, the husband of the current Vice President, Kamala Harris, who to avoid even the slightest appearance of compromising his wife's ethics or conflict of interests, resigned his previous job as a high powered lawyer and took a job as a college professor, taking an enormous pay cut as a result. Why do so few Republicans seem to lack that kind of integrity? Those few who don't have that lack (like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinsinger) are now reviled by their fellow Republicans.

[Doctor Steuss]

It just keeps coming...

Tuition at the boarding school ran more than $6,000 a month. But Thomas did not cover the bill [for his grandnephew to attend]. A bank statement for the school from July 2009, buried in unrelated court filings, shows the source of Martin’s tuition payment for that month: the company of billionaire real estate magnate Harlan Crow.

...Crow paid Martin’s tuition the entire time he was a student there...

[...]

ProPublica interviewed Martin, his former classmates and former staff at both schools. The exact total Crow paid for Martin’s education over the years remains unclear. If he paid for all four years at the two schools, the price tag could have exceeded $150,000, according to public records of tuition rates at the schools.

Thomas did not report the tuition payments from Crow on his annual financial disclosures. Several years earlier, Thomas disclosed a gift of $5,000 for Martin’s education from another friend. It is not clear why he reported that payment but not Crow’s.

https://www.propublica.org/article/clar ... ion-the Supreme Court

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

This is crazy. I wonder if this has been a sort of open secret within GOP circles? How long have they known Clarence Thomas could be paid off?

Poor Ajax. He must get a headache with this one.

- Doc

[Res Ipsa]

Of the various political shenanigans that have gone on over the past few years, this one has the potential to do lasting damage. What's going on is that a fairly small group rich conservatives are "befriending" conservative justices under the radar. And it's not just Thomas. They are paying for overseas vacations, buying their houses, paying for overseas teaching gigs that are thinly disguised vacations, etc. And they have been able to get away with this because (1) the Justices haven't been reporting the transactions and (2) the people involved generally aren't parties to or lawyers in important Supreme Court cases. They just look for and finance test cases. So, a serious conflict exists, but it's not easily discovered. To see what I mean, read up on Leonard Leo. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... e-abortion A painting of Clarence Thomas hangs at Crow's overseas retreat where Crow invites his friends to get together. In the painting, Thomas is sitting next to Leo.

This is a bona fide bribery/corruption scandal involving three Justices so far. This is the legacy of the Roberts Court -- the most corrupt Supreme Court in history. And the fact that none of the Justices, conservative, liberal, or swing, has raised this as a problem is deeply troubling to me. Roberts should figure out a way to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and issue a report on all nine Justices. Criminal prosecutions should follow for anyone that has broken the law in connection with these "gifts" to sitting Supreme Court Justices.

As someone who has spent a career as a lawyer, these revelations make me feel literally ill. The Supreme Court has literally no power to enforce its decisions. It relies on the acceptance by the other two branches of the federal government to recognize its authority as ultimate arbiter of disputes and to voluntarily comply with its rulings. If the Court is corrupt, the rationale for accepting its decisions evaporates. in my opinion, this is the most destabilizing event for the United States government that has occurred in my lifetime.

[Father Francis]

Of the various political shenanigans that have gone on over the past few years, this one has the potential to do lasting damage. What's going on is that a fairly small group rich conservatives are "befriending" conservative justices under the radar. And it's not just Thomas. They are paying for overseas vacations, buying their houses, paying for overseas teaching gigs that are thinly disguised vacations, etc. And they have been able to get away with this because (1) the Justices haven't been reporting the transactions and (2) the people involved generally aren't parties to or lawyers in important Supreme Court cases. They just look for and finance test cases. So, a serious conflict exists, but it's not easily discovered. To see what I mean, read up on Leonard Leo. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... e-abortion A painting of Clarence Thomas hangs at Crow's overseas retreat where Crow invites his friends to get together. In the painting, Thomas is sitting next to Leo.

This is a bona fide bribery/corruption scandal involving three Justices so far. This is the legacy of the Roberts Court -- the most corrupt Supreme Court in history. And the fact that none of the Justices, conservative, liberal, or swing, has raised this as a problem is deeply troubling to me. Roberts should figure out a way to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and issue a report on all nine Justices. Criminal prosecutions should follow for anyone that has broken the law in connection with these "gifts" to sitting Supreme Court Justices.

As someone who has spent a career as a lawyer, these revelations make me feel literally ill. The Supreme Court has literally no power to enforce its decisions. It relies on the acceptance by the other two branches of the federal government to recognize its authority as ultimate arbiter of disputes and to voluntarily comply with its rulings. If the Court is corrupt, the rationale for accepting its decisions evaporates. in my opinion, this is the most destabilizing event for the United States government that has occurred in my lifetime.

I'm not a lawyer or an expert on anything law related, so forgive me if my questions are ill informed or ignorant.

1. My understanding is that the situation last brought to light involving a the Supreme Court Justice and financial impropriety resulted in a resignation and was far less egregious. Is that correct?

2. Clarence Thomas has a long history of doing things wrong and claiming ignorance when caught. How does a the Supreme Court Justice not know the rules?

3. Why does the Supreme Court have ethics if they aren't actually held accountable?

[Res Ipsa]

Of the various political shenanigans that have gone on over the past few years, this one has the potential to do lasting damage. What's going on is that a fairly small group rich conservatives are "befriending" conservative justices under the radar. And it's not just Thomas. They are paying for overseas vacations, buying their houses, paying for overseas teaching gigs that are thinly disguised vacations, etc. And they have been able to get away with this because (1) the Justices haven't been reporting the transactions and (2) the people involved generally aren't parties to or lawyers in important Supreme Court cases. They just look for and finance test cases. So, a serious conflict exists, but it's not easily discovered. To see what I mean, read up on Leonard Leo. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... e-abortion A painting of Clarence Thomas hangs at Crow's overseas retreat where Crow invites his friends to get together. In the painting, Thomas is sitting next to Leo.

This is a bona fide bribery/corruption scandal involving three Justices so far. This is the legacy of the Roberts Court -- the most corrupt Supreme Court in history. And the fact that none of the Justices, conservative, liberal, or swing, has raised this as a problem is deeply troubling to me. Roberts should figure out a way to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and issue a report on all nine Justices. Criminal prosecutions should follow for anyone that has broken the law in connection with these "gifts" to sitting Supreme Court Justices.

As someone who has spent a career as a lawyer, these revelations make me feel literally ill. The Supreme Court has literally no power to enforce its decisions. It relies on the acceptance by the other two branches of the federal government to recognize its authority as ultimate arbiter of disputes and to voluntarily comply with its rulings. If the Court is corrupt, the rationale for accepting its decisions evaporates. in my opinion, this is the most destabilizing event for the United States government that has occurred in my lifetime.

I'm not a lawyer or an expert on anything law related, so forgive me if my questions are ill informed or ignorant.

1. My understanding is that the situation last brought to light involving a the Supreme Court Justice and financial impropriety resulted in a resignation and was far less egregious. Is that correct?

2. Clarence Thomas has a long history of doing things wrong and claiming ignorance when caught. How does a the Supreme Court Justice not know the rules?

3. Why does the Supreme Court have ethics if they aren't actually held accountable?

1. That was Abe Fortas who resigned during the Nixon Administration. I wouldn’t describe it as being far less egregious. He accepted the equivalent of $150,000/year in today’s dollars, for life, with payments to continue to his wife until she died for unspecified advice from a friend and former client who was under indictment for securities fraud. There was some evidence that the friend wanted Fortas to persuade his friend then-president Johnson to grant him a pardon if he was convicted.

Nixon directed the Attorney General to investigate Fortas, which he did. Future Justice William Rehnquist played a role in the investigation. Nixon wanted Fortas out so he could replace him with a conservative Justice. The AG persuaded Fortas to resign. Fortas has accepted only one annual payment. He paid it back and never accepted another.

2. I don’t know.

3. Unlike every other Judge in the US, Supreme Court Justices are not subject to a set of ethics rules. The Constitutional check on the Supreme Court is impeachment by Congress. I think it’s still an open question as to the executive branch’s constitutional power to investigate or prosecute a sitting Justice.

[Doctor Steuss]

And it just keeps coming...

In January 2012, Leo instructed the GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to bill a nonprofit group he advises and use that money to pay Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the documents show. The same year, the nonprofit, the Judicial Education Project, filed a brief to the Supreme Court in a landmark voting rights case.

Leo, a key figure in a network of nonprofits that has worked to support the nominations of conservative judges, told Conway that he wanted her to “give” Ginni Thomas “another $25K,” the documents show. He emphasized that the paperwork should have “No mention of Ginni, of course.”

[...]

In December 2012, the Judicial Education Project submitted an amicus brief in Shelby County v. Holder, a case challenging a landmark civil rights law aimed at protecting minority voters. The court struck down a formula in the Voting Rights Act that determined which states had to obtain federal clearance before changing their voting rules and procedures. Clarence Thomas was part of the 5-to-4 majority.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investig ... as-conway/