Democratic senators’ nearly two-year investigation into Supreme Court ethics has detailed more of Justice Clarence Thomas’ lavish travels and urged Congress to develop a way to enforce a new code of conduct.
As Republicans prepare to take control of the Senate in January, any progress on the issue seems unlikely, underscoring the challenges of imposing restrictions on individual branches of government at a time when public confidence in the courts has fallen to historic lows. obstacle.
The 93-page report released Saturday by the Democratic majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee found that Thomas took additional travel in 2021 that was not reported on his annual financial disclosure form: a private jet flight to Adirondack, New York, in July Mountain ranges, and jet and yacht trips to New York City in October were sponsored by billionaire Harlan Crowe, two reports detailing Thomas’s acceptance of luxury trips and gifts from wealthy donors. One of a dozen times.
The court adopted its first set of ethics rules in 2023, but all nine judges must abide by them.
“The highest court in the land cannot have minimum ethical standards,” Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the committee’s chairman, said in a statement. He has long called for an enforceable code of ethics.
Republicans protested the subpoenas issued to Crowe and others as part of the investigation. No Republicans signed on to the final report and they are not expected to submit a formal report.
A spokesman for Crowe said he voluntarily agreed to provide information to the investigation, which did not point to any specific instances of improper influence. Crowe said in a statement that Thomas and his wife, Genie, had been unfairly maligned. “They are good and respectable people and no one should be treated like this,” he said.
Attorney Mark Pauletta, a longtime friend of Thomas who was appointed to the incoming Trump administration, said the report targets conservatives in the Democratic Party who disagree with its rulings.
“This entire investigation was never about ‘morals’ but an attempt to undermine the Supreme Court,” Paoletta said in a statement posted on X.
The court did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Thomas said he did not need to disclose the trip he and his wife took with Crowe because the large donor was a close friend of the family and such trips had not been required to be disclosed before. The new ethics code did explicitly require this, and Thomas later went back to report on some of the trips.
The report traces back to Justice Antonin Scalia, saying he “established the practice of accepting undisclosed gifts” and made hundreds of trips during his decades on the bench. The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and retired Justice Stephen Breyer also took sabbatical trips but disclosed them on annual forms.
The investigation found that since his confirmation in 1991, Thomas had accepted gifts and travel from wealthy donors estimated to be worth more than $4.75 million, much of which he had not disclosed. “The number, value and extravagance of the gifts received by Justice Thomas are unparalleled in modern American history,” the report said.
It also details Justice Samuel Alito’s lavish trip to Alaska in 2008. He said he was exempt from disclosing the trip under previous ethics rules.
Alito has also resisted calls to withdraw from the campaign involving Donald Trump or the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, after flags related to the riot were seen flying at two of Alito’s homes. Alito said the flags were raised by the wife.
Thomas also ignored calls to recuse himself from cases involving Trump. Genie Thomas supports Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which the Republican lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
The report also noted scrutiny of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who over the past decade has boosted her book sales through college visits with the help of staff. The judges also heard cases involving their book publishers or involving companies in which the judges owned stock.
Biden is the most prominent Democrat to call for a binding code of conduct. Justice Elena Kagan has publicly supported the use of enforcement mechanisms, although some ethics experts say it could be legally tricky.
Justice Neil Gorsuch recently cited the doctrine when he recused himself from an environmental case. He has been facing calls to resign over an outcome that could benefit the Colorado billionaires Gorsuch represented before becoming a judge.
The report also calls for reforms to the Judicial Conference, the federal court oversight body led by Chief Justice John Roberts, and for further congressional investigation.
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