In 2004, the Los Angeles Times reported that Thomas was receiving these same gifts from Crow, down to the Douglass Bible detail, without disclosing them. This is not even the first time he has been caught in this exact scandal. Thomas is asking the public to ignore what their lying eyes are showing them. How can regular meetings with the leading legal minds of the conservative movement, whose organizations regularly appear before the Court or file amicus briefs in major cases, not be considered “official business”? Thomas once swore in a federal judge in Crow’s personal library, almost certainly taking Crow’s private jet to and from D.C. That exception doesn’t apply if the “personal hospitality” involves official government business. He claims that this all falls under an exception for “personal hospitality” from friends, a reading so tortured it would make the statute pointless. Thomas’s failure to disclose these gifts directly violates the post-Watergate Ethics in Government Act. Read more from the Revolving Door Project There, Thomas held court, so to speak, with conservative luminaries like Leonard Leo, the architect of the right-wing Federalist Society and dark-money financier of other conservative projects. Thomas also accepted expensive gifts from Crow, such as a $19,000 Bible once owned by Frederick Douglass, and regularly vacationed at Crow’s retreat in the Adirondacks. On Thursday, ProPublica reported that for two decades, Thomas has secretly taken luxury global vacations at the expense of conservative mega-donor Harlan Crow, a patron of right-wing political influence groups including the Club for Growth, American Enterprise Institute, and Hoover Institution. Congress would be extending that pathology to the Supreme Court if they do nothing. “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal,” Richard Nixon said 46 years ago. Congressional inaction would set a precedent that the Supreme Court appointees need not abide by the laws they interpret. If Congress instead greets these allegations with a perfunctory shrug, then this country can no longer claim to even theoretically believe in equal justice under law. If an investigation corroborates this reporting, then Thomas must immediately be impeached and removed from the bench. Recent reporting indicates that Thomas has broken the law, knowingly and repeatedly, for two decades.
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