More Supreme Court corruption:
CONSERVATIVE SUPREME COURT Justice Clarence Thomas has been regularly taking luxury trips financed by a billionaire Republican donor for over 20 years, according to a new investigation from ProPublica.
Thomas “virtually every year” has accepted rides on private jets, stays at private resorts, and invitations to hang out on superyachts owned by real-estate mogul Harlan Crow. He hasn’t disclosed any of it, which ethics experts spoken to by ProPublica say could violate a federal law requiring justices to disclose most gifts.
Meanwhile, Thomas has been one of the most conservative justices on a court dominated by conservatives. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, Thomas wrote a concurring opinion arguing it should reconsider rulings that established the right to contraception and same-sex marriage. He also made controversial rulings about the 2020 election results while his wife, Ginni Thomas, was pushing conspiracy theories and aggressively lobbying for the results to be overturned.
Crow has given $10 million in public political contributions, ProPublica notes, but there’s no telling how much undisclosed dark money he’s ferried to conservative causes. He’s been a driving force behind the right-wing Club for Growth and sits on the board of multiple conservative groups. He also gave $500,000 to Liberty Central, the Tea Party group founded by Ginni Thomas. Crow claimed in a statement to ProPublica that the hospitality he’s offered Thomas over the years is “no different” than what he has “extended to our many other dear friends.”
Here’s the convergence of big money and Ginni’s extremist activism into Clarence’s extra-curricular activities. It’s grotesque. Yes, Clarence would vote the way he votes because he’s a sour, bitter, brittle, right wing asshole. But he sure as hell doesn’t mind being rewarded for being who he is.
This is yet another example of impunity for these high echelon elites and is the reason why the public no longer trusts the Supreme Court. They have completely jettisoned the concept of stare decisis and the previous norms of the Court (prolific use of the shadow docket) and are showing themselves to be hyper-partisan and totally corrupt.
The right professes that the founders were demi-gods whose every word must be respected as a sacred but they sure don’t understand that this kind of thing is what they were most concerned about. (Actually, they don’t really revere the founders and they don’t care about what motivated them or anyone else.) They thought the system of checks and balances and the wisdom of the people would prevent this but they were wrong.
The right understands that there is almost no likelihood they will be held to account for anything so they just do what they want.
We need term limits for Supreme Court justices. At the very least.