It is said that Clarence Thomas considered his financial situation carefully before accepting lavish presents and trips from conservative supporters such as Harlan Crow. A Republican lawmaker expressed concern over two decades ago that Thomas would resign from the Supreme Court in the event that he was not given a rise.
ProPublica reports that in 2000, Thomas told then-Rep. Cliff Stearns that “one or more justices will leave soon” without raises upon his return from a conservative meeting at a resort in Georgia.
Stearns wrote to Thomas, “I intend to look into a bill to raise the salaries of members of the Supreme Court.” Americans value constitutional interpretation, as we’ve stated.
Congress rejected Thomas’s campaign request for a significant increase in pay or the lifting of the justices’ speech fee ban. But a ProPublica article that seems to break federal law begs the question of how and why wealthy conservatives started gifting the right-wing judge gifts, which Thomas frequently failed to mention.
When Clarence Thomas first met Stearns in 2000, he was making $173,600 but owed hundreds of thousands of dollars. He was concerned about supporting his grandnephew and maintaining his lifestyle as a low-income court member. He served as a lifetime appointment justice and, until his resignation, had no successful career in the private sector. This concerned Republicans who admired Thomas’s conservative judicial philosophy.
Stearns informed ProPublica that “his importance as a conservative was paramount.” “We wanted to make sure he was getting paid fairly and that he was comfortable with his work.”
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It was not legislative action that improved Thomas’s lot, but rather the gifts, excursions, and boat rides that conservative power brokers like Crow gave him. They paid the private school tuition for Thomas’s grandnephew and purchased three properties from the justice and his family. When Vanity Fair reached out to the Supreme Court, neither Clarence Thomas nor Crow responded.
They both denied having acted inappropriately in the past. The revelation of the relationship has called into question the top court’s authority. Samuel Alito’s 2022 Dobbs decision demonstrates how the conservative majority on the court has occasionally displayed its political inclinations.
Democrats and watchdogs put pressure on John Roberts to draft an ethics code mandating justices to be “fair, unbiased, and diligent” and to abstain from “political engagement” following the disclosure of Thomas’s prior information. The new standards, which allow judges to supervise themselves in an unreliable manner and without an enforcement mechanism, are insufficient in light of the most recent Thomas revelations.
These misgivings about the legal system intensify as the Supreme Court considers Donald Trump’s request for immunity from prosecution for attempting to exact revenge for his 2020 election defeat. Republicans, such as Hank Johnson, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, have urged Thomas to step down due to his wife Ginni Thomas’s involvement in political meddling.
Thomas received a letter from Johnson and his associates last Thursday that said, “Your wife’s activities raise serious questions about your ability to be or even to appear impartial in any Supreme Court cases involving the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection.” Though there’s no assurance that this time will be any different, Thomas has never let morality stand in the way of his success.
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