Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday urged Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to investigate a recent bombshell report that Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted and failed to disclose 20 years’ worth of lavish gifts and luxury travel from a billionaire GOP megadonor.
The ProPublica report, published last week, describes conduct by Thomas “that is plainly inconsistent with the ethical standards the American people expect of any person in a position of public trust,” reads a letter to Roberts signed by all 11 Democrats on the panel.
“The Senate Judiciary Committee, which has legislative jurisdiction over Federal courts and judges, has a role to play in ensuring that the nation’s highest court does not have the federal judiciary’s lowest ethical standards,” said the Democrats. “You have a role to play as well, both in investigating how such conduct could take place at the Court under your watch, and in ensuring that such conduct does not happen again.”
They add, “We urge you to immediately open such an investigation and take all needed action to prevent further misconduct.”
Here’s a copy of their letter:
With Congress in recess for two weeks, Republican leaders have used the opportunity to say absolutely nothing about Thomas’ unethical and possibly illegal behavior. Democrats have been tepid, at best. Apart from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) calling for Thomas to be impeached, most Democrats have made vague calls for an enforceable code of ethics for the high court without any real plan on how to make this happen.
Nobody has demanded, for example, that Thomas identify which colleague he claims advised him it was fine to accept and not disclose luxury trips from a GOP megadonor for more than 20 years. Nobody has demanded that this Republican billionaire, Harlan Crow, testify before Congress under oath about his decades-long relationship with Thomas and what business interests he may have had before the court in that time.
At least one progressive judicial advocacy organization says Democrats’ call on Roberts to investigate Thomas is necessary, but insufficient. This group, Take Back the Court Action Fund, is urging Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to step up his response to the situation.
“Senator Durbin is, of course, right that Chief Justice Roberts has a responsibility to investigate and address obvious corruption at the Supreme Court,” said Sarah Lipton-Lubet, the organization’s president. “But Roberts and the rest of the right-wing Court majority have proven they’re unwilling or unable to hold themselves accountable for basic judicial ethics.”
She added, “Senator Durbin should force Roberts and Thomas to come to the Capitol and answer for turning the Supreme Court into a kangaroo court.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, has at least proposed specific action that senators can take. He’s called for a hearing and vote on his bill, the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act. It would create a process for investigating misconduct at the court and require the court to adopt disclosure rules for gifts, travel and income that are at least as rigorous as ethics rules for members of Congress.
“This Supreme Court has lost its ethical compass,” Whitehouse, who chairs the Judiciary’s subcommittee on court oversight, said in a statement. “It’s no wonder that the American people are losing faith in the idea that they can get a fair shake before the nation’s highest court when they see a Supreme Court justice openly flouting basic disclosure rules in order to pal around with billionaires in secret.”
In Senate Democrats’ letter, they chide Roberts for ignoring their previous concerns about the Supreme Court’s lack of ethical standards. They note that The New York Times reported more than 10 years ago that people had been raising questions about Thomas’ acceptance of favors from Crow.
“It is troubling that your 2011 year-end report, which dismissed the call for the Justices to adopt the Code of Conduct, was written notwithstanding the known concerns about Mr. Crow’s largesse,” reads the letter to Roberts. “This problem could have been resolved then. Instead, according to ProPublica’s reporting, Mr. Crow’s dispensation of favors escalated in secret during the years that followed. Now the Court faces a crisis of public confidence in its ethical standards that must be addressed.”
Democrats said they plan to hold a committee hearing in the coming days on the need to restore confidence in the court’s ethical standards. They didn’t offer any specifics beyond that, but said if Roberts doesn’t resolve the court’s ethics mess, the senators will take up legislation to try to resolve them.
“You do not need to wait for Congress to act to undertake your own investigation into the reported conduct and to ensure that it cannot happen again,” said the Democrats. “We urge you to do so.”