The Lowest Court, Part I

The absurdity of "consulting" the code

It is not exactly breaking news but we have even more proof than we needed that Clarence Thomas is the most corrupt Supreme Court judge in modern history—and perhaps all history.

Thomas never should have been placed on the court in the first place and his decades’ worth of unethical behavior supports that assessment. But as long as the spineless Chief Justice John Roberts refuses to institute meaningful ethics reform, justices like Thomas will continue to behave unethically. This, time, however, Thomas has broken the law and, as Dahlia Lithwick recently wrote, “it’s not even close.”

One of the reasons federal judges are granted lifetime tenure is allegedly to insulate them from the pressure and corruption of politics. Federal judges who are not on the Supreme Court must avoid even the “appearance of impropriety.” Members of the high court, according to Chief Justice John Roberts, merely “consult” that code for guidance. This basically means that they can do whatever the fuck they want and suffer no consequences.

When it comes to Thomas, the lifetime appointment cuts the other way—he acts as if he has free rein to wallow in corruption. As for avoiding the “appearance of impropriety,” he has interpreted this to mean hiding his impropriety from prying eyes and then brazenly pretending it is of no consequence when he is finally called out on it.

The result is plummeting public confidence in the Court’s legitimacy. Clarence Thomas is doing much more than his fair share to destroy that confidence.

Let’s leave aside Thomas’ more egregious rulings against affirmative action, marriage equality, reproductive freedom, and privacy and for money in politics, the death penalty, gun manufacturers, and so on.

Let’s instead focus on his recent behavior.

• Last year, Thomas did not recuse himself from cases that potentially involved his wife, Ginni’s efforts to help overturn the 2020 presidential election.

• He was the only justice to dissent when the Supreme Court rejected Donald’s bid to withhold White House documents concerning January 6.

• Billionaire real estate mogul Harlan Crow made a $500,000 contribution to Ginni Thomas’ organization Liberty Central, which in turn paid her $120k a year salary. Clarence Thomas did not disclose this.

• Thanks to extraordinary work by reporters at ProPublica, we learned that Thomas has accepted luxury trips from Harlan Crow almost every year for over two decades. 

• A recent vacation included nine days of island-hopping in Indonesia on a superyacht staffed with a private chef. The value of that one trip would have cost Thomas in excess of $500,000 if he’d had to pay for it himself. His government salary is $285,000,

• We learned that in 2014, Thomas sold two vacant lots and the house in which Thomas’ mother lives to Crow’s companies in an undisclosed real estate deal. After the sale, contractors made tens of thousands of dollars of improvements.

• Crow bought other properties on the same residential street in Savannah, Georgia.

Crow’s rationale for purchasing Thomas’ mother’s house, was explained as follows:

“My intention is to one day create a public museum at the Thomas home dedicated to telling the story of our nation’s second black Supreme Court Justice. I approached the Thomas family about my desire to maintain this historic site so future generations could learn about the inspiring life of one of our greatest Americans.”

Leaving the split infinitive aside (which I’m loathe to do), Crow’s reasoning is deeply flawed. But the reason for the purchases or for Thomas’ decision to sell the properties to Crow are irrelevant to Thomas’ obligation to disclose the sale—which he did not do.

Do we really think that Harlan Crow would be “dear friends” with Clarence Thomas if the latter weren’t a Supreme Court justice? No, we do not.

But let’s pretend that it’s ok for a Supreme Court Justice to be bought by rich people who may influence his or her rulings—it’s not but just for the sake of argument. Is it therefore OK if that massively wealthy friend also populates his gardens with statues of the worst mass murderers of the 20^th century and collects and displays Nazi memorabilia? What does that say about Crow’s “dear friend?” What does that say about our Supreme Court?

We know John Roberts will do nothing. As long as Republicans control the House there will be no impeachment hearings.

That leaves it up to Joe Biden and the Senate Democrats. First, the Senate judiciary needs a new chair. Sen. Dick Durben has proven time and again to be worse than useless. We need someone who will play hardball. Second, Joe Biden needs to expand the Court. That is the only way to rein in the corruption of the illegitimate, extremist, Christian nationalist majority. It is the only way to stop their as yet unfettered assault on American democracy. It’s way past time the president and the Democratic party take the threat this Supreme Court poses seriously and act accordingly.