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ethics
'Another Day, Another Undisclosed Trip Clarence Thomas Took on a Billionaire's Private Jet': Wyden
"The Supreme Court should be the gold standard for judicial ethics," said one reform advocate, "yet billionaires like Harlan Crow are buying the loyalty of justices one private jet flight at a time."
Aug 05, 2024
New reporting on Monday that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas failed to report even more private travel gifted by a Republican mega-donor sparked renewed calls for reforms including a binding code of ethics for members of the nation's highest court.
The New York Timesreported that Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) detailed in a letter to Michael Bopp, an attorney representing billionaire businessman Harlan Crow, how Thomas "has never disclosed" round-trip travel by Thomas and his wife, conservative activist Virginia Thomas, between Hawaii and New Zealand in November 2010 on Crow's private jet.
"Furthermore, it was revealed just a few weeks ago that Justice Thomas enjoyed complimentary use of private jets paid for by Mr. Crow on 17 different occasions since 2016, with nine of those flights coming in the last three years," Wyden wrote.
"While Justice Thomas has only recently updated his financial disclosures to include an eight-day voyage aboard the Michaela Rose in Indonesia in 2019, Justice Thomas still has not disclosed other trips on the Michaela Rose," the senator continued, referring to Crow's yacht. "Public reports show evidence that Justice Thomas was a passenger aboard the Michaela Rose in Greece, New Zealand, and elsewhere."
Thomas' 2023 disclosure, which was published in June, includes food and lodging during 2019 trips to Bali and Bohemian Grove—a secretive, men-only retreat in Sonoma County, California—paid for by Crow. The trips and other gifts for Thomas—including yacht excursions, flights on private jets, and private school tuition for the justice's grandnephew—were first revealed by ProPublica last year. Thomas claimed key disclosures were "inadvertently omitted at the time of filing."
Also in June, the advocacy group Fix the Court published a database listing 546 total gifts valued at over $4.7 million given to 18 current and former justices mostly between 2004 and 2023, as identified by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The database also lists "likely" gifts received by the justices and their estimated values, bringing the grand total to 672 gifts valued at nearly $6.6 million.
Thomas led the pack with 193 FTC-identified gifts collectively valued at over $4 million. Of these, he listed only 27 in financial disclosure reports.
Wyden wrote:
I seek to understand the means and scale of Mr. Crow's undisclosed largesse to Justice Thomas to inform several pieces of legislation that the committee is drafting, including but not limited to: reforms to the tax code concerning filing requirements for gift tax returns, audit requirements for Supreme Court justices, and comprehensive ethics reform that would strengthen the Ethics in Government Act and other laws related to the disclosure of complimentary private jet and yacht travel by Supreme Court justices...
Unfortunately, your prior responses to the committee have done nothing to address concerns that personal trips aboard Mr. Crow's superyacht and private jets for lavish vacations, including complimentary private jet travel for Justice Thomas, may have been used to help Mr. Crow avoid or evade paying federal taxes. This is not a particularly complicated matter. Mr. Crow could easily clarify for the committee whether tax deductions were claimed on superyacht and private jet use by Justice Thomas, but he refuses to do so.
This is particularly troubling in light of the committee's discovery of additional lavish international travel by Justice Thomas at Mr. Crow's expense that Justice Thomas has failed to properly disclose.
Wyden's letter asks Bopp to provide financial statements for Rochelle Charter, the holding company for the Michaela Rose, and to answer questions including whether Thomas ever reimbursed Crow for the private jet trip from Hawaii to New Zealand and other travel.
Last month, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who chairs a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on the federal courts and oversight, and Wyden asked the Biden administration to appoint a special counsel to investigate Thomas for alleged ethics violations.
Government ethics advocates weighed in on the new revelations.
"These new reports are as appalling as they are unsurprising," Demand Justice managing director Maggie Jo Buchanan said in a statement. "Justice Thomas' actions and—critically—[Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts'] refusal to assure the public that the court takes these never-ending revelations seriously, shows the necessity of meaningful and immediate reform."
"Trust for the Supreme Court remains at historic lows in part because the MAGA justices openly display their allegiances to wealthy billionaires and partisan interests instead of the public, whom they are meant to serve," Buchanan added. "We call on Congress to urgently pass full-scale reform, including an enforceable code of ethics as President [Joe] Biden proposed last week."
Biden called for, and Vice President Kamala Harris—who is replacing the incumbent atop the Democratic presidential ticket— endorsed reforms including term limits for Supreme Court justices, an enforceable code of ethics, and a constitutional amendment reversing the court's decision to grant presidents broad immunity for official acts.
Last year, the Supreme Court formally announced a new 14-page
code of conduct that watchdog groups dismissed as what the Revolving Door Project called a "toothless PR stunt."
Brett Edkins, managing director of policy and political affairs for the advocacy group Stand Up America, said Monday that "the Supreme Court should be the gold standard for judicial ethics, yet billionaires like Harlan Crow are buying the loyalty of justices one private jet flight at a time."
"Our nation's highest court has become a political plaything for the ultra-wealthy and well-connected," Edkins added. "Congress must step up as a co-equal branch of government and tackle the corruption plaguing the court. It's time for our leaders to restore integrity and transparency to the Supreme Court by passing a binding code of ethics and term limits."
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Lindsey Graham Blocks Democrats' Attempt to Pass Supreme Court Ethics Bill
"Senate Republicans just showed how out of touch they are with what most Americans want—a Supreme Court free of corruption."
Jun 13, 2024
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on Wednesday blocked an attempt by Senate Democrats to pass Supreme Court reform legislation by unanimous consent, thwarting efforts to establish a binding ethics code for the nation's top court as two of its right-wing justices come under fire for taking billionaire-funded luxury vacations and flying flags associated with the January 6 insurrection.
The Democratic legislation—titled the the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act—advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee nearly a year ago without any GOP support. The bill would give the high court 180 days to adopt a binding code of ethics and establish new recusal requirements surrounding justices' acceptance of gifts.
Supreme Court justices are currently the only federal judges in the U.S. not bound by an ethics code. Last year, under massive pressure following revelations of Justice Clarence Thomas' undisclosed luxury trips, the Supreme Court announced an ethics code with no enforcement mechanism, effectively rendering it toothless.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the lead sponsor of the SCERT Act, said Wednesday that he was "not surprised" Republicans blocked the attempt to pass his bill.
"The highest court shouldn't have the lowest ethics standards," Whitehouse wrote on social media. "What's controversial about that?"
"Both Justice Thomas and Justice Alito have failed to disclose gifts they have accepted—in clear violation of financial disclosure requirements under federal law."
The chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), spearheaded Democrats' attempt Wednesday to pass the SCERT Act by unanimous consent, process under which just one objection is enough to block legislation. Given Democrats' narrow control of the Senate and the continued existence of the legislative filibuster, the bill almost certainly would have failed had it gone to a full vote.
"For more than a year, the Supreme Court has been embroiled in an ethical crisis of its own design," Durbin said in a floor speech Wednesday. "Story after story about ethical misconduct by sitting Supreme Court justices has led the news for months. For decades, however, Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted lavish gifts and luxury trips from a gaggle of fawning billionaires. The total dollar value of these gifts is in the millions. One Supreme Court justice—millions of dollars worth of gifts."
"Justice [Samuel] Alito, as well, went on a luxury fishing trip that should have cost him over $100,000—but it didn't cost him a dime, because the trip was funded by a billionaire and organized by rightwing kingpin Leonard Leo. Both Justice Thomas and Justice Alito have failed to disclose gifts they have accepted—in clear violation of financial disclosure requirements under federal law. But it isn't only this shameless conduct that has cast a dark shadow over the court. Time and again, these justices' actions have cast doubt on their impartiality in cases before the court."
Graham's obstruction of the ethics bill came as the Supreme Court is weighing a slew of high-stakes cases, including one on whether former President Donald Trump is immune from criminal prosecution.
Thomas, whose wife supported efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, and Alito, who blamed his wife for flying pro-insurrection flags at two of their homes, have both rejected calls to recuse themselves from the case.
"The Supreme Court clearly can't and won't police itself," Christina Harvey, executive director of Stand Up America, said in a statement Wednesday. "Time and again, the right-wing majority on the court has shown that it is unwilling to abide by basic rules of ethics. Passing the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Actwas an opportunity to guarantee basic ethics standards and restore some trust in the highest court in our country."
"Eighty percent of voters want Congress to pass a binding code of ethics for the Supreme Court," Harvey added. "Senate Republicans just showed how out of touch they are with what most Americans want—a Supreme Court free of corruption—when they refused to hold our Supreme Court justices accountable to the same ethical standards that apply to members of Congress and public servants across the country."
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AOC, Raskin Announce Bill to Rein in 'Captured and Corrupted' Supreme Court
"A group of anti-democratic billionaires with their own ideological and economic agenda has been working one of the three co-equal branches of government," said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Jun 12, 2024
To rein in what he called "the highest court in the land with the lowest ethical standards," U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin on Tuesday evening joined Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in announcing plans to introduce legislation to bar Supreme Court justices from accepting gifts worth more than $50, matching a ban for members of Congress.
Announced after a roundtable discussion with several legal experts on the pattern of ethics violations at the court, the legislation would be the latest attempt by progressive lawmakers to constrain right-wing justices including Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
Raskin (D-Md.) and Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) helped lead the roundtable discussion held by the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Tuesday afternoon, where topics included right-wing billionaire Harlan Crow's funding of luxury vacations for Thomas—which the justice officially disclosed last week after it was first reported by ProPublica last year—and a fishing trip taken by Alito and paid for by hedge fund manager Paul Singer, who later had business before the court.
Speaking on MSNBC's "All In with Chris Hayes" after the roundtable, Raskin said that with the Supreme Court remaining "the only governmental officials in the land who are not governed by a binding ethics code," he and Ocasio-Cortez decided to introduce legislation "that the whole country will be able to understand immediately and intuitively."
"We want a $50 gift ban for U.S. Supreme Court justices," said Raskin. "They make $300,000 a year. Pay for your own lunch and pay for your own vacation."
Last fall, the Supreme Court introduced an ethics code for justices for the first time, but court reform groups have criticized the fact that it lacks an enforcement mechanism.
At the roundtable discussion on Tuesday, Alex Aronson, executive director of Court Accountability, told Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) that the ethics code has "no teeth or function. It just serves as a way to get people to stop complaining and keep with the status quo."
The Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), has called on Alito in recent weeks to recuse himself from cases involving the 2020 election and former President Donald Trump, following reporting that Alito's family displayed two flags that have been embraced by the "Stop the Steal" movement, which baselessly claims Trump was the rightful winner of the presidential election.
Alito has refused to recuse himself, as has Thomas, whose wife supported efforts to overturn the 2020 election in favor of Trump. Last year, Hayes noted in his interview with Raskin and Ocasio-Cortez, Alito said Congress "has no ability to regulate [Supreme Court justices] whatsoever."
Ocasio-Cortez warned Alito's position that the judiciary is unaccountable to the other co-equal branches of government would pave "the path to authoritarianism, tyranny, and abuse of power."
"It's not a question of if Congress has jurisdiction and power over the Supreme Court, it is, 'What power are we going to exercise in order to rein in a fundamentally unaccountable and rogue court?'" said Ocasio-Cortez.
At the roundtable, the congresswoman said that the court has been "delegitimizing itself through its conduct," including the latest revelations regarding Alito, who was caught on tape at an event this month agreeing with an undercover documentary filmmaker that the U.S. needs to return to "a place of godliness."
The tape was released Monday, ahead of an expected Supreme Court ruling on whether the Food and Drug Administration's approval of mifepristone, an abortion pill, should be revoked. The case was brought by conservative Christian group Alliance Defending Freedom.
"A group of anti-democratic billionaires with their own ideological and economic agenda has been working one of the three co-equal branches of government," Ocasio-Cortez said at the roundtable. "Americans are losing fundamental rights in the process, reproductive healthcare, civil liberties, voting rights, the right to organize, clean air and water because the court has been captured and corrupted by money and extremism."
Last month the congresswoman called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to open a formal investigation into the display of the two pro-insurrection flags at Alito's homes.
Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin said Tuesday evening that while it is "great" that progressive members of the House minority are addressing the tools they have to hold the Supreme Court accountable, "it's embarrassing the Senate Judiciary chair isn't demonstrating half the interest or effort."
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