Washington Following a nearly two-year inquiry by Democratic senators, the Supreme Court ethics committee exposes Justice Clarence Thomas’s additional opulent travels and calls on Congress to create a mechanism for enforcing a new rule of behavior.
Given that Republicans are getting ready to seize control of the Senate in January, any progress on the matter seems doubtful, highlighting the difficulties in limiting a distinct arm of government at a time when public trust in the court has reached all-time lows.
A private jet flight to New York’s Adirondacks in July and a jet and yacht trip to New York City in October, sponsored by billionaire Harlan Crow, were among the additional trips Thomas took in 2021 that were not disclosed on his annual financial disclosure form, according to the 93-page report released Saturday by the Democratic majority of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The report also details more than two dozen instances in which Thomas accepted gifts and luxury travel from wealthy benefactors.
Each of the nine judges is responsible for adhering to the court’s initial code of ethics, which was adopted in 2023. The action came after ProPublica conducted substantial investigative reporting.
The chairman of the committee, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, stated in a statement that the nation’s top court cannot have the lowest moral standards. He has long advocated for an ethical code that can be enforced.
Republicans objected to the subpoenas that were approved for Crow and other probe participants. No formal report from Republicans was anticipated, and none of them signed on to the final report.
Thomas’s close friend and a candidate for the upcoming Trump administration, Mark Paoletta, said the report was directed at conservatives whose decisions Democrats didn’t agree with.
In a statement published on X, Paoletta said that the goal of the entire probe was to weaken the Supreme Court rather than to upend ethics.
A request for comment was not immediately answered by the court.
Thomas claims he was exempt from disclosing the travels he and his wife, Ginni, took with Crow because the large contributor is a close friend of the family and it was not previously necessary to declare that kind of travel. It is specifically required by the new ethics rule, and Thomas has since returned and disclosed some trips. Crow has insisted that he has never discussed ongoing court cases with his pal.
According to the report, over his decades on the court, Justice Antonin Scalia started the habit of taking secret gifts and hundreds of trips. It stated that retired Justice Stephen Breyer and the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg also had subsided vacations, but they reported them on their yearly forms.
The investigation found that Thomas has accepted gifts and travel from wealthy benefactors worth more than $4.75 million by some estimates since his 1991 confirmation and failed to disclose much of it. The number, value, and extravagance of the gifts accepted by Justice Thomas have no comparison in modern American history, according to the report.
It also described Justice Samuel Alito’s 2008 opulent excursion to Alaska. He has said he was exempted from disclosing the trip under previous ethical rules.
Alito also declined calls to withdraw from cases involving Donald Trump or the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol after flags associated with the riot were seen flying at two of Alito s homes. According to Alito, this wife raised the flags.
Thomas has ignored calls to step aside from cases involving Trump, too. Ginni Thomas supported Trump s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election that the Republican lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
The report also pointed to scrutiny of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who, aided by her staff, has advanced sales of her books through college visits over the past decade. Justices have also heard cases involving their book publishers, or involving companies in which justices owned stock.
Biden has been the most prominent Democrat calling for a binding code of conduct. Justice Elena Kaganhas publicly backed adopting an enforcement mechanism, though some ethics experts have said it could be legally tricky.
Justice Neil Gorsuch recently cited the code when he recused himself from an environmental case. He had been facing calls to step aside because the outcome could stand to benefit a Colorado billionaire whom Gorsuch represented before becoming a judge.
The report also calls for changes in the Judicial Conference, the federal courts oversight body led by Chief Justice John Roberts, and further investigation by Congress.
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