Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), who is running for Senate in her home state, was among those who spoke out this week amid growing outrage about the contents of a report from ProPublica that revealed GOP megadonor Harlan Crow has been treating U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to free hospitality for many years.
Thomas’s relationship with Crow — and, more specifically, the perks the judge enjoyed — previously went mostly unreported, although it’s not only a matter of general transparency. There is a specific legal framework in place for the disclosure of hospitality and related perks gifted to judges — disclosures also required of the highest court’s Justices, although enforcement options are limited. The parameters for these required disclosures were recently the subject of clarifying rule updates shared with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), but ethics experts told ProPublica there already wasn’t an exemption from the reporting requirements for transportation like the private jet trips and even yacht excursions Thomas enjoyed thanks to Crow.
“Justice Thomas should be held accountable for violating federal disclosure law, but that’s not enough,” Porter said Thursday on Twitter. “We should ban justices from taking lavish, donor-funded vacations in the first place. Congress must strengthen the judicial code of ethics and other anti-corruption safeguards.”
It’s apparently the case that judges on the Supreme Court actually aren’t bound by the same comprehensive ethics standards binding judges serving elsewhere in the federal judiciary. The specific funding of trips was a subject of the recent updates to rules for disclosures, with the changes demanding disclosures should the hospitality be financially covered by a third party or if the person paying for it would receive financial benefits in return like something on their taxes. There are exemptions from the requirements if the hospitality is personal in nature, but further sketching out what such actually means, the updates also clearly establish demands for disclosures if the service is at a commercial establishment or a spot owned by an entity rather than an individual person.
The idea here is to protect against outside interests covertly cultivating favor with members of what is supposed to be an independent judicial body — and a body whose decisions can have far-reaching and very serious impacts for people living everywhere in the United States. Sure, Crow predictably claimed he didn’t bring up any relevant court cases with Thomas even just potentially within the judge’s purview, but should that be trusted? Perhaps there’s documentation showing otherwise.
Justice Thomas should be held accountable for violating federal disclosure law, but that's not enough. We should ban justices from taking lavish, donor-funded vacations in the first place. Congress must strengthen the judicial code of ethics and other anti-corruption safeguards. https://t.co/hY7vImSs2n
— Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter) April 6, 2023
