Jesus. I'm out of it for a couple of days and it turns out that Harlan Crow paid something on the order of $150,000 in private school tuition for Clarence Thomas's grand-nephew, who Thomas raised "like a son." Needless to say, none of this was reported.
The best explanation Crow could come up with was this: "Harlan Crow has long been passionate about the importance of quality education and giving back to those less fortunate, especially at-risk youth." I'm not sure how the son of a Supreme Court justice is "at risk," but whatever.
Damn. I wish Crow were passionate about finding a cure for multiple myeloma. Maybe then I could have seen a piece of that sweet Harlan Crow largess.
And now the reports are starting to trickle in about Scalia...
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Clarence Thomas is not his own man. End of story.
Curious minds want to know just how bad stories about Thomas have to get before any Republicans currently in office (and most no longer serving) say one damned little word about improprieties and, perhaps, the appropriateness of a Thomas resignation.
Curious minds want to know just how bad stories about Thomas have to get...
There's nothing to be curious about. Because, until there's a Republican in the White House, the correct answer is that nothing Thomas could do would generate the necessary GOP votes in either chamber to convict/remove, nor would any revelation be sufficiently shameful form Thomas himself to resign.
Republicans care only about political wins and outcomes, not process or optics (and certainly not ethics).
I believe we already know the answer. A Republican appointed justice would have to gun someone down on 5th avenue for them to take action. Even then, they'd fight it if a Democrat admin were in the White House.
I dunno, that little shit from Illinois got a pass for killing two and wounding a third, and he was a nobody. I’m sure the Republicans would spot one of their Associate Justices a half-dozen victims, minimum, as long as they were POC or libz.
It would have to be Donald Trump that he gunned down. Anybody else -- well, Clare was "standing his ground."
Clarence Crow (Come on, Harley's totally his daddy) demonstrates the incredible power of shamelessness.
And we already know Tony Scalia used to invite places he wanted to vacation to "invite" him to stay there. Sort of like all the shameless "influencers" try to do, except for him it actually worked. And then he'd claim he was just hanging out with friends who invited him.
My drug dealer is more honest than all of them. Yes, that includes the liberals - the system corrupts. They're defending him.
I wonder if you're buying into some misinformation about the liberal Justices on the Court defending Thomas.
Cheap Jester Roberts wrote a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee declining their invitation to testify, and basically saying the Court needed no oversight from Congress. Attached to the letter was a "Statement on Ethics Principles and Practices" that all of the Justices and Jesters signed, basically committing themselves to abide by the Statement.
This has been reported in the conservative information bubble as all Justices and Jesters signing onto the letter, which is just false. All they did was sign onto the Statement, agreeing to abide by it, but making no suggestions about whether they thought it was adequate.
You or I might similarly agree to abide by EPA regulations, which is all fine and good, but which is also not the same as accepting that existing EPA regulations are sufficient protections for the environment.
I'm pretty deflated by the complete disinterest in these stories by the likes of the Times & the Post, both outlets are giving the Thomas stories a cursory treatment & completely ignoring Gorsuch's shady 2017 real estate deal & Robert's wife's big payouts.
There's clearly deep rot in this court & a lot of it is out in the open - the "liberal" press couldn't seem to care less.
Not all of the recent reports of the questionable practices of the justices are equal. The Gorsuch deal seems like a relatively benign real estate transaction if you look into the details - it seems pretty plausible that Gorsuch had little knowledge about the purchasers. Not to sound like a concern troll but, conflating the violations as equally wrong opens the door for Repugs to engage in whataboutisms RBG and Sotomayor.
There's been plenty about Thomas and Gorsuch in both the Post and Times.
Oh, just more "hospitality." Ayn Rand is laughing from her grave.
Congress should criminalize - like "mandatory time served in jail" criminalize - the gift givers for giving gifts over a low threshold to government officials. But just like how we almost never go after employers for employing undocumented immigrants, we also won't go after the gift givers for giving bribes... er, I mean, gifts... either.
I agree. But the current judicial mileau says that money is speech, which is protected by the first amendment, and therefore, bribery of a public official is fine.
See how the media is trying to besmirch the reputation of conservative justices!!!
They never talk about the liberals getting $100K+ vacation packages or kid's tuition, etc. at all!!!
(do I need to put the snark notice on...ok, maybe I should)
/s
Obvious follow-up question is how many other at-risk youth he has helped in a similar fashion. Clearly if it's a cause he's passionate about there's a ton of them right?
I too would like a piece of that sweet Harlan Crow largess. And as it happens I have the perfect gift from him in mind! Did you know that the first issue of the Captain America comic book came out before our entry into WW2 and features on its cover a drawing of Captain America punching Hitler? Since ‘ol Harlan likes to collect Nazi stuff he could certainly understand my desire to own that comic. A mere $3.5 million. Come on Harlan, as a fellow collector I’m sure you understand my desire to own such a historic object!
On the other hand, I suspect Crow would own the comic himself if it featured Hitler punching Captain America in the jaw. Never mind.
I'm sure Crow would quickly develop a deep passion about multiple myeloma if doing so would buy him another SC justice.
Serious questions: How many other children have had their tuition paid by Crow? And who were they? If he's seriously interested in education of at-risk youth, there are plenty of other opportunities.
I wonder if Clarence Thomas had not been a Supreme Court whether he would have received the largesse /s
Base pay for an associate justice is $285,400 per year. That puts Thomas in the 98th percentile of income earners.
"Less fortunate," my ass.
So, you read about this and thought that the mental fuzziness must be kicking in? I mean, it really can't be that bad, can it?
Judicial ethics….. the new oxymoron.
So the senior in years of service Supreme Court Justice is “less fortunate.”
We have 861 federal judges who are subject to a code of ethics. We have 9 federal judges who are totally free to graft as much as they can.
Wouldn't it be simpler if Crow just put Clarence on retainer? Maybe he already has.
I assume the at-risk refers to the circumstances under which the child came to be in need of a guardian. The ProPublica article has:
Whether the child remained at-risk after coming to live with GrandUncle Clarence would still be an open question.
From the little written it doesn’t sound like the Thomas family has been Ward/June/Ozzie/Harriet.
point taken....
I am not sure this is per se corruption. Corruption probably would be payments for decisions, but one rather suspects Thomas doesn't need to be paid for his decisions at all... it's like, what, fan service?
I'd categorize it as giving an Extreme Court Jester cause to feel that the interests of the billionaire class align with his own.