Tag Archives: Clarence Thomas

The New York Times reports: Justice Clarence Thomas recently hired a law clerk who was previously accused of sending racist text messages, resurfacing the controversy around her. Crystal Clanton will begin clerking for the justice in the upcoming term, according to the Antonin Scalia Law School, from which she graduated in 2022. In late 2017, a New Yorker story reported …

ProPublica reports: In early January 2000, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was at a five-star beach resort in Sea Island, Georgia, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. After almost a decade on the court, Thomas had grown frustrated with his financial situation, according to friends. At the resort, Thomas gave a speech at an off-the-record conservative conference. He found …

Newsweek reports: Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas is facing pressure to recuse himself from a case determining whether Donald Trump can claim presidential immunity from prosecution in a federal indictment against him. Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, suggested Thomas “think twice” about the case. “There’s been enough information raised about Mr. Thomas and his spouse that he ought …

Politico reports: Conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo’s consulting firm received $21 million in 2022 from a group that is a pillar of Leo’s aligned nonprofit network, according to a new tax filing. That group, The 85 Fund, is part of an umbrella of nonprofits under investigation by the Washington, D.C. attorney general for potentially violating tax laws. The tax filing, …

The Associated Press reports: The Supreme Court is adopting its first code of ethics, in the face of sustained criticism over undisclosed trips and gifts from wealthy benefactors to some justices. The policy was issued by the court Monday. The justices, who have hinted at internal deliberations over an ethics code, last met Thursday in their private conference room at …

NBC News reports: Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee announced plans Monday to seek subpoenas for three influential conservatives who have been a key focus of the panel’s investigation into Supreme Court ethics. In a joint statement, Committee Chairman Dick Durbin of Illinois and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who chairs the panel’s subcommittee on federal courts and oversight, said previous …

The New York Times reports: The terms of the private loan were as generous as they were clear: With no money down, Justice Clarence Thomas could borrow more than a quarter of a million dollars from a wealthy friend to buy a 40-foot luxury motor coach, making annual interest-only payments for five years. Only then would the principal come due. …

NBC News reports: Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett indicated Monday she would support a code of conduct for the Supreme Court in the wake of recent claims that some justices have fallen short of required ethical standards. Speaking at the University of Minnesota Law School, Barrett said it would be “a good idea for us do it” and suggested that …

NBC News reports: Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas for the first time recused himself from a case involving the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump as the Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal brought by former Trump legal adviser John Eastman. Thomas, under fire over claims of ethical lapses, had participated last year …

USA Today reports: Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan says she hopes colleagues will adopt an ethics “code of conduct,” while a new report details a relationship between Justice Clarence Thomas and conservative political activists. New ethics rules would “go far in persuading other people that we were adhering to the highest standards of conduct,” Kagan said during a Friday speech …

ProPublica reports: On Jan. 25, 2018, dozens of private jets descended on Palm Springs International Airport. Some of the richest people in the country were arriving for the annual winter donor summit of the Koch network, the political organization founded by libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch. A long weekend of strategizing, relaxation in the California sun and high-dollar fundraising …

Politico reports: The Supreme Court’s decision in the 2010 Citizens United case transformed the world of politics. It loosened restrictions on campaign spending and unleashed a flow of anonymous donor money to nonprofit groups run by political activists. In the months before the ruling dropped in January of that year, a group of conservative activists came together to create just …

The Hill reports: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has disclosed three trips he accepted from billionaire Harlan Crow last year, according to documents made public Thursday. Thomas has denied any wrongdoing in accepting the trips, two of which were to Dallas and one to Keese Mill, N.Y. His new financial disclosure form also includes supplemental information about a 2014 real …

The Huffington Post reports: The group of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ former clerks who signed on to a letter this week defending the justice from “attacks on his integrity, his character [and] his ethics” included one individual whose integrity has been drawn into serious question: John C. Eastman. Eastman is accused of undermining the core of American democracy — …

Axois reports: A group of leading House Democrats on Friday called for the Justice Department to open an investigation into Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Calls by Democratic lawmakers for the court to conduct an internal inquiry into Thomas’ lavish donor-funded trips, as well as their efforts to conduct their own probe, have been met with stonewalling. “We write to …

ProPublica reports: During his three decades on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas has enjoyed steady access to a lifestyle most Americans can only imagine. A cadre of industry titans and ultrawealthy executives have treated him to far-flung vacations aboard their yachts, ushered him into the premium suites at sporting events and sent their private jets to fetch him — including, …

The New York Times reports: His Prevost Marathon cost $267,230, according to title history records obtained by The New York Times. And Justice Thomas, who in the ensuing years would tell friends how he had scrimped and saved to afford the motor coach, did not buy it on his own. In fact, the purchase was underwritten, at least in part, …

The Guardian reports: Several lawyers who have had business before the Supreme Court, including one who successfully argued to end race-conscious admissions at universities, paid money to a top aide to Justice Clarence Thomas, according to the aide’s Venmo transactions. The payments appear to have been made in connection to Thomas’s 2019 Christmas party. The payments to Rajan Vasisht, who …

The Washington Post reports: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has asked for more time to file annual financial disclosures following criticism that he failed to report luxury travel and real estate deals with a Texas billionaire and Republican donor. Thomas’s 2022 filing was highly anticipated after ProPublica reported on the justice’s financial dealings with his close friend and benefactor, the …

USA Today reports: Chief Justice John Roberts told an audience he is committed to ensuring the “highest standards of conduct” at the Supreme Court as pressure has mounted from congressional Democrats for changes in the wake of a series of scandals involving Justice Clarence Thomas. Without offering specifics or addressing the recent controversies directly, Roberts framed the ethics debate as …