According to a report released on Thursday, US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had been taking lavish vacations offered to him by a wealthy Republican for years. Private jet travel between states and sailing in New Zealand were among the offerings.
“The Supreme Court is the least accountable part of our government”
Thomas, the most senior member of the court and a fervent conservative, took one trip to Indonesia that alone cost almost $500,000 and was covered by real estate mogul Harlan Crow, according to the non-profit ProPublica news organization.
According to the legal reform advocacy group Fix the Court, the ProPublica study, which was based on studies of photos, interviews, and other records, demonstrated that “the Supreme Court is the least accountable part of our government.”
“Nothing is going to change without a wholesale, lawmaker-led reimagining of its responsibilities when it comes to basic measures of oversight,” said the group’s director Gabe Roth, in a statement.
The 74-year-old judge also traveled with Crow, whose relationship with the justice was described by the New York Times as “unusual and ethically sensitive” in 2011, on trips to a California all-male wilderness lodge, as well as to locations in New York and Texas, over the course of two decades.
Crow claimed to ProPublica that the gifts he offered Thomas were “no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends” and that the two never addressed any active legal matters.
Justice Clarence Thomas was appointed to the bench in 1991
According to ProPublica, Crow donated more than $10 million to Republican political organizations, including a half-million dollars to a right-wing lobbying organization that Ginni Thomas, Thomas’ wife, created.
After allegations that Ginni Thomas was involved in Donald Trump’s illegal attempts to have the results of the 2020 presidential election thrown out, her position in American politics has come under increased investigation.
Justice Thomas was appointed to the bench in 1991 following a confirmation hearing during which he was accused of sexual harassment by a former staffer.
He sided with most judges who rendered the historic decision in favor of overturning the right to abortion last year. He added that a court with a conservative majority needed to review its decisions on same-sex unions and contraception.
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said that Thomas’s “behavior is simply inconsistent with the ethical standards the American people expect of any public servant, let alone a Justice on the Supreme Court.”
