Clarence Thomas Bribed and Tennessee GOP Expels Black Men
Clarence Thomas Bribed and Tennessee GOP Expels Black Men
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Justice Thomas accepted luxury travel for years from GOP donor, report says (The Washington Post)
SUMMARY: “Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted luxury trips around the globe for more than two decades, including travel on a superyacht and private jet, from a prominent Republican donor without disclosing them, according to a new report.
“ProPublica reported Thursday on an array of trips funded by Harlan Crow, a Dallas businessman. The publication said Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks. It said the justice also has vacationed at Crow’s ranch in East Texas and has joined him at the Bohemian Grove, an exclusive all-male retreat in California.
“ProPublica cited a nine-day trip that Thomas and his wife, Virginia ‘Ginni’ Thomas, took to Indonesia in 2019, shortly after the court released its final opinions of the term. That trip, which included flights on Crow’s jet and island-hopping on a superyacht, would have cost the couple more than $500,000 if they had paid for it themselves, the publication said.”
MY TAKE: Legal experts disagree about whether or not Thomas was legally required to report these gifts. Right now there’s no ethics code for Justices that is enforceable by law. (Some new restrictions went into effect on March 14.)
Crow claims he never tried to influence any of Thomas’ Court decisions. However, when you’re accepting gifts for over over thirty years, including a vacation worth half a million dollars and numerous gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars (including a $19,000 Bible that had belonged to Frederick Douglass and a $15,000 bust of Abraham Lincoln), that certainly could subconsciously sway someone.
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) tweeted: “Important for news media to not simply label this guy as a ‘[Republican] mega donor’. It’s so much worse. Crow has many interests before the Supreme Court. His groups file petitions before the court. It’s the clearest, most brazen violation of judicial ethics you can imagine.”
Historian Heather Cox Richardson reports: “Thomas said that he and his wife Ginni had been dear friends of the Crows for over 25 years, but he joined the court over 30 years ago, making more than one commenter note that the friendship certainly seemed to be based on Crow’s access to the Supreme Court through Thomas. In 2011, Ian Millhiser, then of ThinkProgress, noted that Thomas sided with the American Enterprise Institute and the Center for the Community Interest, both of which were affiliated with Crow, in every case concerning them that had come before the Supreme Court.”
Since Thomas’ appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, I’ve considered him to be one of the least intelligent and most prejudiced Justices. He was selected by President George H. W. Bush to assure the nation that Republicans can be both Black and conservative. I agree, they can. But there are many who are both those things and also have ethics. He does not. That was clear during the confirmation hearings when Anita Hill made a compelling case about how he had continually sexually harassed her. To our shame and detriment, we just keep ignoring women when they make credible accusations, like we did with Trump and Justice Kavanaugh.
Interesting side note about Thomas’ generous billionaire pal Harlan Crow: According to The Guardian, he “has a private collection including a garden of statues of dictators, including Mussolini and Stalin; Nazi memorabilia; and paintings including two works by Adolf Hitler and a “signed copy of Hitler’s memoir, Mein Kampf.” He also had statues of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.
At the very least, Thomas should not have accepted these free trips and expensive gifts based on a desire to give the appearance of not being in some billionaire’s pocket. But Thomas is so arrogant and untouchable that he doesn’t care how it looks, nor does he care that all of his decisions go the way his benefactor wants them to. His corruption is sad for all Americans, it’s embarrassing for all Black Americans.
ALSO READ: “Clarence Thomas Is On a Quest to Be the Most Corrupt Justice In the Court”