I am shocked, shocked to discover that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ commitment to originality, that is, the belief that legislative texts should be interpreted as they were understood when they were passed, comes to a screeching halt as soon as he gets off the bench slides.

When Congress passed the Ethics in Government Act in 1978, which requires government officials to report donations, I was pretty sure lawmakers had in mind

precisely

the kind of relationship Thomas has with Republican mega-donor and Nazi memorabilia collector Harlan Crow.

I mean maybe

nothing can

prevent a corrupt Supreme Court judge from being showered with gifts by a conservative billionaire

(the rules are lax compared to other civil servants)

but Congress certainly needs that

S

the grasping justice to expose the billionaires

generosity generosity

.

Thanks for the spectacular reporting

last week

through the non-profit research organization ProPublica, we now know that Crow has served as Ginni Thomas’s patron, benefactor, sponsor and, let’s face it, fairy godfather for at least two decades. He has showered them with gifts, trips, and all sorts of inappropriate favours.

other

Than,

on Thursday,

came a second scathing ProPublica investigative report:

In 2014, one of Crows companies bought a house from

Clarence

Thomas and his relatives in Savannah, Georgia, and immediately began thousands of dollars worth of upgrades. The house is the long-term residence of

Clarence

Thomas mother.

The transaction marks the first known instance of money flow from the Republican mega-donor to a Supreme Court justice, ProPublica reported. Thomas failed to report the real estate transaction as required by federal disclosure law.

Crow told ProPublica the purchase was part of a plan to create a history museum honoring the second black man’s humble roots upheld by the Supreme Court, but that doesn’t affect reporting requirements, as ProPublica noted. .

All this time

,

Thomas

enjoyed Crow’s generosity,

he pretended to be a man of the people.

I have no problem going to Europe, but I prefer the United States,

Thomashe

said in a recent documentary funded in part by Crow, according to ProPublica. I prefer the Walmart parking lots to the beaches and things like that. There’s something normal about me.

While they describe each other as good personal friends, Crow and Thomas didn’t meet until after Thomas was already a member of the Supreme Court, which should tell you something about why they’re so gregarious.

Both men say Crow was never linked to any case that came before Thomas.

But the idea that a real estate magnate and conservative activist like Crow would have no interest in the outcome of many Supreme Court cases is laughable. Just as laughable, actually, when Thomas doesn’t acknowledge his

apparently

conflict of interest in matters pertaining to the January 6

2021,

uprising, even though his wife declared the election stolen, and even attended President Trump’s Stop the Steal rally that preceded the violence.

Crow is chairman of the board of trustees of the American Enterprise Institute, the neoconservative think tank that regularly files amicus briefs with the court. He has given millions to conservative causes

according to ProPublica,

over $10 million in publicly disclosed donations and untold millions in dark money.

Crow has also funded right-wing political efforts by Ginni Thomas. In 2009, he donated half a million dollars to Liberty Central, the conservative political advocacy group she founded, from which she received an annual salary of $120,000.

In the field of “personal hospitality”

Crow has paid the Thomases to take lavish international trips on his private jets and superyacht. As far back as 1997, he brought justice to the all-male bacchanal of elites known as the Bohemian Grove, in the redwoods north of San Francisco.

.

And still in 2019, the Thomases flew Crows jet to Indonesia for nine days of island hopping aboard his 50-meter yacht, the Michaela Rose.

The inevitable conclusion:

Crow has spent hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars securing a lifestyle for the Thomases unthinkable with the $285,000 annual salary of a Supreme Court justice.

Although there seems to be

have been

Thomas is legally obliged to report all nice trips

(and the judges’ reporting rules were tightened in March)

. Still hey

has

opted to keep it private, claiming he was told no such reporting was necessary. It is wrong not to report such gifts. Thomas must be held accountable.

Coincidentally, Thomas received

much pricey

goodies for a very, very long time.

Nearly 20 years ago, my colleagues Rick Serrano and David Savage wrote that the Justice Department reported that they had accepted tens of thousands of dollars in gifts since joining the Supreme Court, including $1,200 in bonds and a $5,000 personal check from a supporter to help pay a nephews education fees. Crow and his wife gave Thomas a $19,000 Bible once owned by Frederick Douglass and a $15,000 bust of President Lincoln.

Those gifts, once revealed, were on the rise, but things weren’t looking good. After The Times broke that story in 2004, however, Thomas didn’t stop accepting gifts. He just stopped reporting it.

ProPublica’s last week

revelations have finally ignited a fire among the watchdogs. Chief Justice John

G.

Roberts

Jr

has been asked by the Democrats to investigate his colleague. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have said they will hold a hearing on the need to restore confidence in the Supreme Court’s ethical standards. And a bipartisan ethics watchdog group has asked the Judicial Conference, which sets policy for federal courts, to get involved, perhaps referring the case to the Justice Department for investigation.

Thomas is certainly not the only member of the Supreme Court to accept gifts and paid travel

,

but he seems t

Oh yeah

by far the worst offender. And it looks like he broke the law in doing so.

Americans’ confidence in the Supreme Court has crumbled in recent years, largely because its rulings are so out of step with public opinion on deep-seated issues such as abortion and gun control.

But those are political issues. Thomas receiving gifts is not.

Thomas’ arrogant disregard for ethical rules and standards

other

are

possible

be corruption

unacceptable. If Supreme Court justices can’t be trusted to check themselves and that’s obvious

they can’t Congress and the Justice Department has to do it for them.

@robinkabcarian