Dem
51
GOP
49
This is the fourth day this week that we've had an item of some sort about Supreme Court misbehavior. You think maybe SCOTUS has a corruption problem?
The latest news, as is the case roughly 75% of the time, involves Clarence Thomas. Even after all the hullaballoo, and even after Thomas claiming that he was now clear on the rules and that he's gotten his paperwork up-to-date, it turns out, as Senate Democrats revealed yesterday, that the Justice took three additional luxury trips on Harlan Crow's dime that were not reported. The destinations, in case you are interested, were domestic, across multiple states.
There is, of course, zero chance that Thomas will be held accountable by his fellow justices. And there is zero chance that he'll be held accountable by Congress; an effort to establish an ethics code for the Supreme Court was blocked by Senate Republicans this week, and would have no chance in the House even if it got that far. No wonder he's been willing to pocket "extra benefits" whose value is approaching $6 million, and to do everything possible to keep those benefits hidden. After all, there are no consequences, especially for a guy who sees any criticism as further proof of his status as a right-wing martyr.
That said, you may have heard about a couple of cases in the past few weeks in which high-profile folks were busted for shady paperwork, including one who was busted for shady federal paperwork. Conservative, but anti-Trump, lawyer George Conway has heard enough at this point that he believes a criminal investigation of Thomas is warranted. The Justice might not have violated the Supreme Court's ethics code, since there wasn't one until a few months ago, but he almost certainly violated the Ethics in Government Act. In addition to laying out requirements for disclosing gifts, incidentally, that Act is also what created the Office of Independent Counsel. So, it could be doubly useful here.
We seriously doubt AG Merrick Garland would be willing to unleash the firestorm that would ensue if he announced that a Special Counsel had been appointed to take a long look at Thomas' history of accepting (and hiding) lavish gifts. But you never know for sure, especially if there are more revelations about how Thomas made a mockery of the system and of the rule of law. (Z)