Clarence Thomas Likes to Vacation in Walmart Parking Lots
And if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you
One clue that someone is lying to you is if they volunteer information you didn't ask for. For example, Clarence Thomas told an interviewer that he prefers traveling across the U.S. to visiting places like Europe and feels most comfortable in an RV or Walmart parking lot.
"There's just something normal about it."
Right.
Clarence Thomas, who has been a justice of the Supreme Court for over 30 years, has spent a week every year for the past 20 years at the private resort of his best buddy, Harlan Crow, a billionaire mega-donor to the Republican Party. Crow, who became Thomas' "best friend" only after Thomas was appointed to the Supreme Court, has a history of being extremely generous with Justice Thomas.
This same billionaire recently took Thomas and his insurrection-promoting wife on a $500k vacation involving a private plane, a luxury yacht, and a week of island hopping in Indonesia.
Thomas must have let his wife, Ginni, twist his arm for the past two decades because he seems to have given up the RV in favor of paid vacations with a man so wealthy his home is a veritable museum of treasures, including several pieces of Nazi memorabilia, the centerpiece of which is a copy of Mein Kampf signed by Hitler.
Thomas' acceptance of outrageously expensive trips is just part of the corrupt practices of this particular justice, one who has carefully cultivated the image of an average guy but whose lifestyle belies his pretense.
Crow is not the only wealthy Republican Thomas hangs out with — though it is via his friendship with Crow that the justice has been able to spend his leisure time with some of the richest and most powerful men in the world — men who have the money to define the way politics works.
I haven't seen a single photo of Thomas living it up at Walmart, but I have seen a photo of him schmoozing with Harlan on the deck at the Bohemian Grove — another high-end private resort, this one for men only. (If you haven't heard of it, there is a reason: it's a secretive place. This is one of those clubs where the men don't let women in, but they dress up like women for cute little production numbers.)
Thomas, who lied under oath during his SCOTUS confirmation hearings when he was accused of sexual harassment by Anita Hill — a woman with zero cause to accuse him of something he didn't do — is now pretending that these trips at his buddy's expense do not violate the obligation to report gifts.
Thomas says he "asked around" and "talked to colleagues," and everybody said he didn't have to report these trips. He figured if nobody told him to, he didn't have to.
Funny thing, Thomas did report receiving a bible from Crow, along with quite a few other gifts, as reported by the Los Angeles Times back in 2004. In fact, as was pointed out then, Thomas was the only justice receiving lavish gifts from wealthy political donors.
“Why would someone do that — give a gift to Clarence Thomas? Unless they are family members or really close friends, the only reason to give gifts is to influence the judge,” said Mark I. Harrison, a Phoenix lawyer who heads the ABA’s Commission on the Model Code of Judicial Conduct. “And we think it is not helpful to have judges accepting gifts for no apparent reason.”
“The public has to wonder when a justice accepts lavish gifts,” said Northwestern University law professor Steven Lubet, a legal ethics expert. “The rich and powerful have a different set of economic interests than other people, and they can afford to give lavish gifts.”
Conflicts of interest are rampant in Thomas' relationship with Crow
Thomas insists that a man who has donated more than $13 million to the Republican Party (that's what's on the books — there is no record of the value of so-called dark money contributions Crow has made) has never had any business before the court. But that's like saying Thomas' wife has never had business before the court — unless you count the Jan.6 investigation.
Justice Thomas was the only justice to vote against requiring Trump to provide documents to the Jan. 6 panel. This is not surprising now that we know that Ginni Thomas was one of several key Republicans who pushed the lie that the election was stolen. Justice Thomas should have recused himself from that case and should recuse himself from any future cases related to Trump and the Jan. 6 investigation.
Unfortunately, SCOTUS has no oversight — so the difference between what Thomas should do and what he will do won't be addressed — at least not according to the current rules.
Thomas chose not to follow ethical practices in the past, and we have no reason to expect that to change in the future. And why should it? When a criminal like Trump has gotten away with worse, why should Thomas worry about ethics?
Justice Thomas has lied to us before, but he's not the only justice to do so
Justice Thomas has been misbehaving and getting away with it for a long time. In case you are too young to remember Thomas' confirmation hearings, think about how Christine Blasey Ford was treated by Republicans when she attempted to share the truth about another SCOTUS nominee: Brett Kavanaugh.
Anita Hill was brave enough to testify to Thomas’ sexual harassment 30+ years ago, and she was skewered for it. Under the guise of doing a good thing by putting the first Black man on the court, the Senate sacrificed a Black woman.
As for Kavanaugh, whether you believe he lied about the assault on Ms. Ford or not, we know he lied under oath about one thing. Like his fellow Trump-appointed SCOTUS nominees Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, Kavanaugh said, under oath, that Roe v. Wade was settled precedent, and he would respect that.
But he didn't — nor did Gorsuch or Coney Barrett. All three reversed the precedent they vowed to uphold the second they knew they had the votes to do it.
So here we are again. This time, Clarence Thomas is lying by pretending he prefers an RV at Walmart to the extravagant vacations his rich buddy foots the bill for — as if saying this will fool us into believing him.
It won’t.
Dems call for Chief Justice Roberts to investigate Thomas' ethics violations
Now Democrats are calling on Chief Justice Roberts to initiate an investigation into Thomas' ethics violations. But this is not likely.
Chief Justice John Roberts has long trumpeted the Supreme Court’s institutional integrity, saying the nine justices differ from elected politicians and calling out anyone who threatens to undermine that message. — CNN
As much as I'd like to see an investigation, if Justice Roberts is left to follow up on this, it will doubtless be about as effective as the botched investigation into the Dobbs leak.
If you didn't get the details on that, here's a refresher.
Dobbs leak investigation was a fiasco
Someone leaked a draft opinion containing Justice Alito's entire 17th-century rationale for overturning a 50-year precedent providing women the right to an abortion (Roe v Wade).
Alito called the leak "a grave betrayal of trust" which endangered the justices' lives, and Chief Justice Roberts promised a thorough investigation. Then Roberts asked the marshal of the court, a woman with zero investigative experience and who serves as a glorified facilities manager for the building, to take charge of this all-important task.
The investigation included interviewing all the staffers and lower-level occupants of the SCOTUS facility, even requiring clerks to provide cell phone data and signed affidavits. As for the justices themselves, there was no such demand.
This is especially odd given that in 2014 Justice Alito was accused of leaking another opinion — that one was also related to women's reproductive care.
Alito leaked a draft opinion in 2014, and there is a signed letter to prove it
In 2014, a business owned by Christian Evangelicals, Hobby Lobby, refused to cover contraceptive medical care for its employees. Justice Alito also wrote the opinion in that case — one that favored the company.
But some time before that decision was announced, a friend of the Rev. Robert L. Schenck told the Reverend that she had been invited to dine with the Alitos and would see if she could give the Rev. a 'heads up' on where that case might be going.
And she did.
According to the letter written by Rev. Schenck, his friend confirmed the Alito opinion. The Reverend then passed that news on to his friends at Hobby Lobby. When the Dobbs leak became known, Rev. Schenck sent the above-referenced letter to Chief Justice Roberts, stating that he thought it might "bear some consideration" in light of the recent leak under investigation.
It didn't.
Justice Roberts appears to have ignored the letter and accepted the marshal's word for the fact that she couldn't figure out who could have leaked the Dobbs opinion.
Congress needs to legislate SCOTUS reform
The upshot is that we can't rely on Chief Justice Roberts to handle an investigation into anybody on the Supreme Court. Though his insistence on the integrity of the court seems misplaced, he is nevertheless unwilling to admit that some oversight is necessary. Instead, he has made clear that he will continue allowing his fellow justices free reign to do whatever they choose.
For all the talk of salvaging the court's legitimacy, one might think Roberts would be concerned enough to address Thomas' apparent conflicts of interest, but he is not.
So I'll beat the dead horse one more time (kidding, it won't be the last) and remind everyone that the only way Congress will ever hold SCOTUS justices accountable is if Democrats manage to take back the House, keep the Senate, and hold onto the oval.
Only then can Democrats establish legislative controls to maintain some level of oversight over the once-august body that turned out to be just as corrupt as any other.
We know what we need to do. We just need to do it.