Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) dismissed Justice Clarence Thomas’s claim that a trip he took on a private jet provided by a billionaire Republican donor is allowed by Supreme Court policy.
Last month, ProPublica detailed some of the benefits Thomas has reaped from his relationship with Harlan Crow.
“He goes on cruises in far-flung locales on Crow’s yacht, flies on his private jet, and keeps company with Crow’s powerful friends at the billionaire’s private resort,” the piece begins. In a subsequent report, the publication reported that Thomas failed to disclose the fact that he sold multiple properties to Crow.
“Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable,” Thomas said in response.
These revelations, as well as a newly-reported real estate transaction by Justice Neil Gorsuch nine days after being confirmed to the court, have brought the court some unwanted attention. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) requested Chief Justice John Roberts appear before the panel to answer questions about the ethics of the high court. Predictably, Roberts declined the invitation.
The committee met on Tuesday, where Whitehouse touted his bill that would impose an enforceable code of ethics on the court.
He accused justices of reading “the ethics rules in unique and eccentric ways” over the years, recalling more than 70 hunting trips former Justice Antonin Scalia went on with industry tycoons, often free of charge.
“My bill would fix that,” Whitehouse said during the hearing. “Which brings us to Justice Thomas’s recent nondisclosure of supposed personal hospitality from a right-wing billionaire and its problems. First problem, private jet travel is not in the personal hospitality exemption, which is limited to ‘food, lodging, and entertainment.’”
Whitehouse then quipped, “Some textualist, by the way.”
The senator was referring to a judicial philosophy popular among conservatives who say cases should be decided based on a plain reading of the Constitution and the nation’s laws.
Watch above via C-SPAN.
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