An organization called Fix the Court has published an estimate of all gifts received by Supreme Court justices since 2004. Their figures show Clarence Thomas way out in front, but this is obviously unfair since Thomas has been on the court longer than most justices. When you adjust for gifts per year, you get something totally—
Actually, you get exactly the same thing. Thomas has raked in a dozen times the volume of gifts of the next highest justice. It's basically Clarence Thomas and the eight dwarfs.
I don't really care very much about Sam Alito hoisting an upside-down flag after the January 6 insurrection. I already assumed he was an ardent Stop the Steal fan anyway. But Clarence Thomas's buck raking is really and truly corrupt. And yet there's nothing to be done about it short of impeachment, which Republicans will never support because Thomas is one of them. If they continue to support Donald Trump, they're certainly not going to do anything about Thomas.
POSTSCRIPT: Fix the Court estimates that, on average, justices have reported only 28% of the gifts they've received. Among sitting justices, this ranges from 83% for Sonia Sotomayor to 8.5% for Thomas.
(Kavanaugh and Barrett are technically at 0%, but that's for a grand total of four gifts totaling $600.)
Does this include cushy jobs and gifts given to Ginni Thomas and Jane Roberts?
Yes. Spousal income is where the real grift is these days. At least for the Thomas household. Ginni has become a major buckraker by all accounts.
too bad the founding fathers put all those pro-graft and corruption amendments in the bill of rights
we couldn't possibly question original intent
Does that include the Kavanaugh credit card debts that were paid off??????
Was that before or after he was on the high court?
Before, I'm pretty sure, but I don't know whether it was before or after his nomination. I assume shortly before, to clean him up before the credit check. It was substantial, like a couple hundred thousand, iirc, and I remember there being comment about it before the Blasey Ford angle overwhelmed everything else at the hearings. That's a lot of debt on a circuit judge's salary, even if it ended up getting paid off by some anonymous benefactor (John Beresford Tipton, I assume).
The cover story at the time was that his wealthy father paid them off. Plausible enough that it shut up the media.
The one thing I can bring myself to "admire" about Thomas is the way he's played so many people for so much. Having chosen the track of a lifetime appointment and maximum personal influence, he then put out the word that he's just so lacking in material wherewithal that he just might have to forsake SCOTUS for the big-bucks corporate/political world. And then magically he acquired that coterie of very generous "dear friends" who simply like spending time with him at their megabucks hideaway private estates, and fly him around on their private jets and gift him with any amount of expensive trinkets, just out of pure longstanding friendship and the kindness of their hearts-- the billionaire lifestyle without the bother of worrying about any of the accoutrements.
It is not possible that he isn't laughing-- guffawing-- up his sleeves every second he's with these people, or whenever he thinks about them.
Kinda reminds you of Invisible Man's Dr. Bledsoe, don't he? I suspect this one was Reagan's vicious little joke: "You want a black man? I'll give you a fine, upstanding black man." You can't tell me he didn't know all about Thomas' character as well as his history.
I believe he was nominated by Bush, not Reagan.
You are right. My apologies.
Is Thomas the most corrupt Justice in history?
Who is his competitor?
Who would've thunk the two most reliably dogmatic conservatives would also be (A) the Grift King and (B) the flagellating polemic liar.
Modest honoraria for being a guest speaker at an University, etc., would not be unheard of, so a few thousand a year. Of course that gets turned into posh vacations fully supported by certain "non-profits"...
Simple enough--justices get reimbursed by the Federal Gov't. for travel to meetings and speeches at the federal rate and they must pay their own way. Any honoraria gets turned over to that travel fund. Spouses pay their own way.
"I don't really care very much about Sam Alito hoisting an upside-down flag after the January 6 insurrection. I already assumed he was an ardent Stop the Steal fan anyway."
Once again, non-lawyer Kevin (who quite obviously and incorrectly considers himself a qualified legal analyst) demonstrates why he needs to stop constantly opining on legal matters. Yes, yes, we all know who Sam Alito is; after all, his "questions" from the bench often sound like the drunk at the end of the bar regurgitating ludicrous. MAGA conspiracy theories from the fever swamps of right wing media and QAnon web sites. And the legal quality of his judgments and opinions are generally below even Drum-quality reasoning. Nonetheless, multiple public displays of his political biases (and under legal ethics standards, it is just as bad even if his "my wife did it" excuse is completely true) directly related to significant cases that he "deciding" is unprecedented at this level, utterly outrageous, and should not not be tolerated. Or hand waved away because, well, we all knew about he was in the MAGA tank anyway. As Josh Marshall noted recently, we really shouldn't be talking about recusal, Alito really needs to resign. A couple of generations ago, Abe Fortas resigned over ethical matters that don't amount to a pinprick next to Alito (or Thomas).
Yes. The general ambivalence regarding the attempted coup/insurrection is still a bit surprising. I understand those who participated in and supported it trying to downplay it, but everyone else?
I guess sometimes you get the government you deserve.
I understand it as a reaction to/acknowledgement of the futility of trying to do anything about it.
Over two million in ten years? Nice work if you can get it.
I vaguely recall Elena Kagan being worried because some friends gave her a bag of New York bagels.
And -- I used to be a clerk at an appeals court. Not a law clerk, just a court clerk, dealing with attorneys and the public and helping them with court procedures. I was not part of the decision-making. A newly-admitted attorney whom I helped figure out the appeal process wanted to give me a loaf of home-made banana bread as a thank you gift. I was not allowed to accept it.
Needless to say, this whole Thomas saga is infuriating to me.
Remember when Black Trump, er, Justice Thomas didn’t say anything for years and years? Only now do we find out it was because he was too busy grifting.
actually, it was probably because he knew that there were not four other votes to support his nonsense hyperconservative takes on things, so why bother asking questions (or even being awake for arguments).
Now that there are 5+ votes he can get, he's much, much more engaged. This is his time to remake the law how he wants.
Thomas must REALLY want to retire or else he's decided to just take these fools for all they are worth.
See my note above. Thomas in no way wants to retire. He finally has a court that will back him up, so now he's enjoying finally getting to flex and warp constitutional law into his image.
Petty corruption certainly isn't worse than advocating and cheering on an attempted coup....... but it's a bad situation to be in that you have to clarify whether you prefer the pro-coup Justice or the pro-corruption Justice.
In retrospect, John Oliver should have offered much more than a deluxe motorcoach, forcing Clarence's benefactors to dole out obscene amounts of money to hold onto their
petfriend.He was also offering $1M per year.
It's “a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate, rather than hung from a tree.”
Boy he sure did get his revenge!
But did he shoot Buckwheat? Oh yeah.
"The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office."
Of course, the Supreme Court will rule that accepting lavish gifts from parties with business before the courts still counts as "good Behaviour", and the only way around that is a majority in the House and two-thirds of the Senate.
While Thomas is an absolute grifter and a fucking moron, don't discount Alito's transgressions (for a person who is suppose to be politics neutral in their decisions that impact the entire nation). If one of the so called liberal justices flew a BLM or heavens forbid, a pride flag, the entire right wing outrage team would be jumping up and down screaming about it and demanding that the "transgressor" recuse themselves from a whole lot of rulings. Sadly, there would also be progressive commentators agreeing with them.
Two more new ones disclosed today--two more luxury trips paid for by his good friend Harlan Crow.