Associate Justice Clarence Thomas poses during a group photo of Supreme Court justices in Washington, April 23, 2021.
Erin Schaff | Pool | Reuters
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted millions of dollars’ worth of gifts while on the bench over the last two decades, a total worth nearly 10 times more than all the gifts received by his fellow justices during the same period, according to a new analysis .
Thomas received 103 gifts totaling more than $2.4 million between 2004 and 2023, the justice reform group Fix the Court said in a report Thursday.
By contrast, during the same period, Thomas’s fellow judges accepted a total of just 93 gifts totaling only about $248,000, according to the nonprofit group.
The lion’s share of this value went to Thomas’ fellow conservative judge Samuel Alito. The court’s analysis found that Alito accepted 16 gifts totaling $170,095.
Fix the Court identified another 101 “likely gifts” — with an estimated total value of nearly $1.8 million — that Thomas received in the form of free travel and accommodations from billionaire businessman Harlan Crow and at the exclusive Bohemian Grove Club.
Counting these gifts, Thomas’ total earnings over two decades come to nearly $4.2 million.
Fix the Court’s analysis is based largely on investigative reporting by media outlet ProPublica last year, which focused on Thomas and Alito and sparked calls for ethics reform at the Supreme Court.
The group also considered data from the Congressional Record, the justices’ annual financial disclosures, other news sources and their own research led by court reporters.
The value and number of gifts Thomas received also exceeded those of eight retired or deceased Supreme Court justices whose terms overlapped with his tenure on the court, which began in 1991.
The late Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who served on the court for more than 34 years, received 73 gifts before her retirement in early 2006, placing her second behind Thomas in total gifts.
But the total value of O’Connor’s gifts was less than $36,000.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito attend a private ceremony for retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor prior to public repose on December 18, 2023 in Washington, DC in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court.
Jacquelyn Martin | Getty Images
Antonin Scalia, a conservative justice who died during his trial in 2016, accepted 67 gifts worth about $210,000 during his term, which began in 1986.
The late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, whose career on the court spanned 33 years through 2005, accepted only six gifts totaling less than $13,000.
“Supreme Court justices should not accept gifts, let alone the hundreds of multimillion-dollar freebies they have received over the years,” Fix Court Executive Director Gabe Roth said in a statement.
“The ethics crisis at the court will not subside until the justices adopt stricter rules for accepting gifts,” Roth said.
The court quickly found that the total gift value values it calculated were likely to be lower than the actual values because the analysis looked at the cost of some gifts, such as gifts. B. free rides or tickets for sporting events, made a mistake in the lower price segment.
His balance sheet also allows for some assumptions. For example, the group assumed the cost per hour of flying on a private plane was $10,000 and counted each leg of a round-trip flight as a separate gift.
The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the court’s findings.
ProPublica first revealed that Thomas had accepted years-long luxury trips from major Republican donor Crow without reporting them in his financial disclosures, something ethics experts said he was required to do.
Thomas said his judicial colleagues told him he did not have to disclose those travel expenses.
Still, the analysis provides motivation for the Supreme Court’s increasingly vocal critics, who are calling for reform in the wake of a series of politically inflammatory rulings and ongoing ethics scandals.
The court under Chief Justice John Roberts has made some concessions, including adopting a formal — although unenforceable — code of ethics in November.
The court’s aim in this document was to “dispel the misconception” that the court’s nine justices “consider themselves to be unconstrained by any rules of ethics.”
The federal judiciary, meanwhile, introduced new rules this year that require Supreme Court justices to disclose the value of travel-related gifts on their financial disclosure forms.
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2024-06-07 12:00:22
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