The Clarence Thomas story will not stop
The Clarence Thomas moral scandal have dug deep againgive to the Democratic Party another reason to push for Supreme Court reform. In a letters Second, Democracy Ron WydenSenate Finance Committee chairman says Supreme Court justice failed to disclose additional travel expenses paid by conservative donor Harlan Crow—this time a private jet trip by Thomas and his wife between Hawaii and New Zealand in 2010. “For decades, Judge Thomas failed to disclose Mr. Crow’s free use of his superyacht and private jet, concealing from the American people millions of dollars worth of gifts in a manner that likely violated federal law,” Wyden wrote to Michael D. BoppCrow’s attorney. The previously unreported trips—discovered by Wyden’s committee through flight records—add to the senator’s concerns that Crow “may have given a public official lavish gifts, then written off those gifts to reduce his tax bill,” he wrote in the letter. “I am also concerned that to date I have not even been able to determine the full extent of the potential tax abuse at issue.”
The latest twist in Thomas’s long-running conflict-of-interest saga highlights the shortcomings of the chief justice’s ethics code. John Roberts announced in November—and the need for more serious reform President Joe Biden be confirm last month. “We need to pass the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act to ensure Supreme Court justices adhere to real, enforceable ethics barriers,” Sen. Jeff Merkley Written Monday. (A Crow attorney said in a declare arrive New York Times that Wyden’s investigations “have no legal basis and are intended only to harass a private citizen,” and said it considered the matter “resolved.” Thomas has not commented publicly on the letter.)
What is the conservative response to such proposals? “Be careful,” Judge Neil Gorsuch warned Biden in a Fox News interview that aired Sunday. Gorsuch—a Donald Trump’s appointee and part of a six-member conservative majority reproductive health care turned upside down in America, paralyze the administrative stateand actually put the presidents “above the law” in ruling that Trump has “absolute immunity” from prosecution for acts committed as part of his official duties—without specifically mentioning the proposals from Biden and Democrats. But he echoed Roberts in arguing that such reforms could threaten “the independent judiciary.” “Wouldn’t you want a highly independent judge and a jury of your peers making those decisions?” Gorsuch asked.
Of course, neither Biden nor the Democrats like it. Sheldon Whitehouse And Dick Durbin is calling for the abolition of an “independent” judiciary; in July, the president called for term limits for Supreme Court justices and a real code of ethics effectiveunlike Roberts put forward last fall. In short, he proposes that the Supreme Court be subject to the same checks and balances as the other branches of government, and that judges on the highest court be subject to the same checks and balances as judges on the lower courts. (Biden also called for a constitutional amendment declaring that no president is above the law or “immune from prosecution for crimes committed in office.”)
For now, at least, such proposals are theoretical: Biden is a near-lame-duck president, and his proposals seem more symbolic than actionable. Meanwhile, Republicans seem less interested in reforming the Supreme Court than they were a few years ago when the Thomas saga began. Democrats have “decided it’s time to dismantle the Supreme Court as we know it,” Senate Minority Leader R-Ky. Mitch McConnell speak on the floor in July. A surprise Democratic sweep in November could change everything. Unless and until that happens?. “I think the court is doing pretty well,” Gorsuch speak Fox News Sunday.
