Corruption in the SCOTUS

The difference between Laura Ingraham and me is that I was outraged by both what Thomas has apparently been doing for decades, and what The Clinton Foundation was doing while HRC was SOS.

America’s biggest problem today is its one-sideism. Not enough folks with bi-partisan outrage over how corrupt our guv is, and too much partisan hypocrisy.

As a law school prof of mine at UF once said to us in an ethics class long ago, “the appearance of impropriety ……. IS impropriety!”

 

I feel like the pro-choice movement should buy a plane and start flying a few of the other conservative justices around... maybe buy a vacation home in Hawaii that they can use 100% of the time.

 

Los Angeles Times reported about Justice Thomas' gifts 20 years ago. After that he stopped disclosing them

It was 2004 when the Los Angeles Times disclosed that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had accepted expensive gifts and private plane trips paid for by Harlan Crow, a wealthy Texas real estate investor and a prominent Republican donor.

The gifts included a Bible that once belonged to abolitionist Frederick Douglass — a gift Thomas valued at $19,000 — and a bust of Abraham Lincoln valued at $15,000. “I just knew he was a fan of Frederick Douglass, and I saw that item come available at an auction and I bought it for him,” Crow explained at the time.

He also flew Thomas on his personal plane to Northern California to be his guest at the Bohemian Grove, which held all-male retreats for government and business leaders.

Thomas refused to comment on the article, but it had an impact: Thomas appears to have continued accepting free trips from his wealthy friend. But he stopped disclosing them.

 

The Thomases are as corrupt as they come. His wife is a Republican political operative who uses her relationship to profit.

 

That explains how they can afford the hefty gift taxes …

 

Pro Publica is an excellent news organization

 

Agreed. Its original managing editor and current executive chairman was formerly managing editor of the Wall Street Journal. It's one of the best investigative journalist outfits around.

 

I'm so old I remember when a Supreme Court Justice was forced to resign under the threat of impeachment for similar improprieties. Under the non-existent ethical standards of the Republican Party of today it's more or less acceptable behavior. Although somewhat off-topic the treatment of Abe Fortas is not dissimilar to that of President Richard Nixon who was also forced to resign under the threat of impeachment back when the Republicans were actually grounded in ethical standards and the rule of law.
Abe Fortas resigns from Supreme Court, May 15, 1969
Clarence Thomas' Abe Fortas problem | Washington Monthly

 

I bet they didn’t even report the gifts as income. It’s going to get trump. It got Capone.

 

I remember in his confirmation hearing Thomas even lied about going to the john. He said that as a kid they had an "outhouse in which nothing worked." What's supposed to work in an outhouse except your bowels?

 

While I like the idea it's the equivalent of tilting at windmills. With Jim Jordan as Chair of the House Judiciary Committee and Kevin McCarthy as Speaker the Articles of Impeachment will probably never come up for a hearing much less a vote in either the Committee or the House floor and even in the extremely unlikely event that a vote took place it would almost certainly fail. Borrowing a line from an old automobile commercial, this not your father's or even your grandfather's Republican Party.

 

Funny how a guy who claims fidelity to originalism and textualism conveniently overlooked that the statute clearly required him to disclose the private jet flights.

 

gravity

 

Are all of these free trips required to be reported as income?

 

He's both dishonest and a moron. How is it that an SC justice didn't know that expensive gifts didn't have to be reported?

 

It's especially delicious because he reported them for awhile and then stopped. He just so happened to stop when, about 20 years ago, there was a controversy over some of the free gifts he reported from the same wealthy Republican megadonor.
Justice Thomas Reports Wealth of Gifts

 

Maybe dishonest. He’s not a moron.

 

That's right. Weightlessness in an outhouse could be a problem.