SCOTUS

[Seacoaster(1)]

The Gorsuch 20% ownership sale of a property is not a big deal, or a deal at all. This, however, is:

https://www.propublica.org/article/clar ... ion-scotus

"In 2008, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas decided to send his teenage grandnephew to Hidden Lake Academy, a private boarding school in the foothills of northern Georgia. The boy, Mark Martin, was far from home. For the previous decade, he had lived with the justice and his wife in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Thomas had taken legal custody of Martin when he was 6 years old and had recently told an interviewer he was “raising him as a son.”

Tuition at the boarding school ran more than $6,000 a month. But Thomas did not cover the bill. A bank statement for the school from July 2009, buried in unrelated court filings, shows the source of Martin’s tuition payment for that month: the company of billionaire real estate magnate Harlan Crow.

The payments extended beyond that month, according to Christopher Grimwood, a former administrator at the school. Crow paid Martin’s tuition the entire time he was a student there, which was about a year, Grimwood told ProPublica.

“Harlan picked up the tab,” said Grimwood, who got to know Crow and the Thomases and had access to school financial information through his work as an administrator.

Before and after his time at Hidden Lake, Martin attended a second boarding school, Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia. “Harlan said he was paying for the tuition at Randolph-Macon Academy as well,” Grimwood said, recalling a conversation he had with Crow during a visit to the billionaire’s Adirondacks estate.

ProPublica interviewed Martin, his former classmates and former staff at both schools. The exact total Crow paid for Martin’s education over the years remains unclear. If he paid for all four years at the two schools, the price tag could have exceeded $150,000, according to public records of tuition rates at the schools.

Thomas did not report the tuition payments from Crow on his annual financial disclosures. Several years earlier, Thomas disclosed a gift of $5,000 for Martin’s education from another friend. It is not clear why he reported that payment but not Crow’s.

The tuition payments add to the picture of how the Republican megadonor has helped fund the lives of Thomas and his family.

“You can’t be having secret financial arrangements,” said Mark W. Bennett, a retired federal judge appointed by President Bill Clinton. Bennett said he was friendly with Thomas and declined to comment for the record about the specifics of Thomas’ actions. But he said that when he was on the bench, he wouldn’t let his lawyer friends buy him lunch."

This really shouldn't be a partisan/red-blue issue. It's a disgrace to the institution.

[CU88a]

GOP donor paid private school tuition for Justice Thomas’s grandnephew, report says

By John Wagner
Updated May 4, 2023 at 11:18 a.m. EDT|Published May 4, 2023 at 8:33 a.m. EDT

The same Texas billionaire who treated Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to lavish vacations paid private boarding school tuition for Thomas’s grandnephew, a boy the justice has said he raised as a son, according to a new report that said Thomas did not disclose the payments.

ProPublica reported that Harlan Crow, a prominent Republican donor, paid tuition at Hidden Lake Academy, a boarding school in Georgia, as well as at Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia, for Mark Martin. Thomas had legal custody of the boy.

The publication cited a bank statement that showed Crow paid $6,200 in monthly tuition at Hidden Lake Academy in July 2009. Christopher Grimwood, a former administrator at the school, was quoted as saying that Crow “picked up the tab” for the entire time Martin was a student there, about a year. Grimwood also told ProPublica that Crow told him that he paid tuition as well for Martin at Randolph-Macon Academy, which Martin attended both before and after his time at Hidden Lake Academy.

[SCLaxAttack]

GOP donor paid private school tuition for Justice Thomas’s grandnephew, report says

By John Wagner
Updated May 4, 2023 at 11:18 a.m. EDT|Published May 4, 2023 at 8:33 a.m. EDT

The same Texas billionaire who treated Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to lavish vacations paid private boarding school tuition for Thomas’s grandnephew, a boy the justice has said he raised as a son, according to a new report that said Thomas did not disclose the payments.

ProPublica reported that Harlan Crow, a prominent Republican donor, paid tuition at Hidden Lake Academy, a boarding school in Georgia, as well as at Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia, for Mark Martin. Thomas had legal custody of the boy.

The publication cited a bank statement that showed Crow paid $6,200 in monthly tuition at Hidden Lake Academy in July 2009. Christopher Grimwood, a former administrator at the school, was quoted as saying that Crow “picked up the tab” for the entire time Martin was a student there, about a year. Grimwood also told ProPublica that Crow told him that he paid tuition as well for Martin at Randolph-Macon Academy, which Martin attended both before and after his time at Hidden Lake Academy.

No big deal. Roberts says they can police themselves.

[cradleandshoot]

What is that term invented by Al Gore... No controlling legal authority?? The Supremes have been granted the power to do pretty much what ever they want to do. Roberts will never acquiesce to letting the Dems compose a code of conduct for the court. As far as justice Thomas is concerned, he found his own path towards reparations. Y'all should be happy for him.

[SCLaxAttack]

What is that term invented by Al Gore... No controlling legal authority?? The Supremes have been granted the power to do pretty much what ever they want to do. Roberts will never acquiesce to letting the Dems compose a code of conduct for the court. As far as justice Thomas is concerned, he found his own path towards reparations. Y'all should be happy for him.

This isn't a party thing. The proof to that would be the fit hitting the shan if Soros was taking Sotomayor on six figure whirlwind trips. Unless of course if that would be OK with Republicans.

[cradleandshoot]

What is that term invented by Al Gore... No controlling legal authority?? The Supremes have been granted the power to do pretty much what ever they want to do. Roberts will never acquiesce to letting the Dems compose a code of conduct for the court. As far as justice Thomas is concerned, he found his own path towards reparations. Y'all should be happy for him.

This isn't a party thing. The proof to that would be the fit hitting the shan if Soros was taking Sotomayor on six figure whirlwind trips. Unless of course if that would be OK with Republicans.

As far as I know the mainstream media has not taken a deep dive into the conduct of the SCOTUS as a whole. I would not be surprised if there were more skeletons hiding in the closets of more of the members of the SCOTUS. They don't have to answer to any other controlling legal authority and I see the court as not being in any particular hurry to change the status quo.

[Seacoaster(1)]

GOP donor paid private school tuition for Justice Thomas’s grandnephew, report says

By John Wagner
Updated May 4, 2023 at 11:18 a.m. EDT|Published May 4, 2023 at 8:33 a.m. EDT

The same Texas billionaire who treated Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to lavish vacations paid private boarding school tuition for Thomas’s grandnephew, a boy the justice has said he raised as a son, according to a new report that said Thomas did not disclose the payments.

ProPublica reported that Harlan Crow, a prominent Republican donor, paid tuition at Hidden Lake Academy, a boarding school in Georgia, as well as at Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia, for Mark Martin. Thomas had legal custody of the boy.

The publication cited a bank statement that showed Crow paid $6,200 in monthly tuition at Hidden Lake Academy in July 2009. Christopher Grimwood, a former administrator at the school, was quoted as saying that Crow “picked up the tab” for the entire time Martin was a student there, about a year. Grimwood also told ProPublica that Crow told him that he paid tuition as well for Martin at Randolph-Macon Academy, which Martin attended both before and after his time at Hidden Lake Academy.

No big deal. Roberts says they can police themselves.

All the Court possesses to create, buttress and continue its institutional legitimacy is the appearance that the Court's component members are committed to the rule of law, and free of abiding prejudices and biases. In my lifetime, the decision not to carry out a proper and expeditious confirmation process on Garland, the circus of Kavanaugh's confirmation, the rush through of the confirmation of ACB, and the revelation of the scope of Thomas's partisanship and succour from the right have basically killed this institution. Roberts: we have always thought he was an institution first kind of actor. He is now at the Rubicon.

[ggait]

Thomas allegedly didn't disclose the $100k+ gift because the payments for the boarding school tuition were not for Thomas' child.

Thomas was "only" the legal guardian for his nephew. The kid lived with Clarence and Ginny for 13 years. Under the lame disclosure laws applicable to SCOTUS, disclosure only required for dependent children. Which is total forking garbage. As a legal guardian, Clarence is repsonsible for educating the kid. So the $100k is clearly a gift to Thomas.

And while living with Clarence and Ginny, the kid got to stay at the Adirondack resort and take cruises on the megayacht in the Caribbean and the Baltics. Those two mooch trips had not been previously reported.

All undisclosed by Clarence of course -- just personal hospitality. GMAFB.

Other federal judges can't accept any gift worth more than $50. And no more than $100 annually from any one person.

Can you imagine the howls if the judge was Sotomayor and the benefactor was George Soros?

[ggait]

This isn't a party thing. The proof to that would be the fit hitting the shan if Soros was taking Sotomayor on six figure whirlwind trips. Unless of course if that would be OK with Republicans.

Agree. Many of these judges (they are in no way deserving of being called justices) have long been doing the BS summer teaching junkets. New Zealand, Malta, Austria, Tuscany.

Maybe we should do away with their three month paid summer vacation every year. No other federal judges get the summer off.

[a fan]

GOP donor paid private school tuition for Justice Thomas’s grandnephew, report says

By John Wagner
Updated May 4, 2023 at 11:18 a.m. EDT|Published May 4, 2023 at 8:33 a.m. EDT

The same Texas billionaire who treated Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to lavish vacations paid private boarding school tuition for Thomas’s grandnephew, a boy the justice has said he raised as a son, according to a new report that said Thomas did not disclose the payments.

ProPublica reported that Harlan Crow, a prominent Republican donor, paid tuition at Hidden Lake Academy, a boarding school in Georgia, as well as at Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia, for Mark Martin. Thomas had legal custody of the boy.

The publication cited a bank statement that showed Crow paid $6,200 in monthly tuition at Hidden Lake Academy in July 2009. Christopher Grimwood, a former administrator at the school, was quoted as saying that Crow “picked up the tab” for the entire time Martin was a student there, about a year. Grimwood also told ProPublica that Crow told him that he paid tuition as well for Martin at Randolph-Macon Academy, which Martin attended both before and after his time at Hidden Lake Academy.

No big deal. Roberts says they can police themselves.

All the Court possesses to create, buttress and continue its institutional legitimacy is the appearance that the Court's component members are committed to the rule of law, and free of abiding prejudices and biases. In my lifetime, the decision not to carry out a proper and expeditious confirmation process on Garland, the circus of Kavanaugh's confirmation, the rush through of the confirmation of ACB, and the revelation of the scope of Thomas's partisanship and succour from the right have basically killed this institution. Roberts: we have always thought he was an institution first kind of actor. He is now at the Rubicon.

There is no bottom for Republican voters. Where the F is the outrage? They don't care. Little D's and R's........tell us more about Hunter's laptop, and how it's important that our government isn't for sale.

Our country continues to circle the drain----if you're a Registered Republican and haven't sent one simple email to your two Senators, as well as your Rep sharing your outrage? This is on you. If you have....good on you, and thanks.

This would NEVER have been allowed by Republican voters or leaders when I was a kid. Its what I liked about them and their party.

Those days are SO long gone.

[Typical Lax Dad]

GOP donor paid private school tuition for Justice Thomas’s grandnephew, report says

By John Wagner
Updated May 4, 2023 at 11:18 a.m. EDT|Published May 4, 2023 at 8:33 a.m. EDT

The same Texas billionaire who treated Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to lavish vacations paid private boarding school tuition for Thomas’s grandnephew, a boy the justice has said he raised as a son, according to a new report that said Thomas did not disclose the payments.

ProPublica reported that Harlan Crow, a prominent Republican donor, paid tuition at Hidden Lake Academy, a boarding school in Georgia, as well as at Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia, for Mark Martin. Thomas had legal custody of the boy.

The publication cited a bank statement that showed Crow paid $6,200 in monthly tuition at Hidden Lake Academy in July 2009. Christopher Grimwood, a former administrator at the school, was quoted as saying that Crow “picked up the tab” for the entire time Martin was a student there, about a year. Grimwood also told ProPublica that Crow told him that he paid tuition as well for Martin at Randolph-Macon Academy, which Martin attended both before and after his time at Hidden Lake Academy.

No big deal. Roberts says they can police themselves.

All the Court possesses to create, buttress and continue its institutional legitimacy is the appearance that the Court's component members are committed to the rule of law, and free of abiding prejudices and biases. In my lifetime, the decision not to carry out a proper and expeditious confirmation process on Garland, the circus of Kavanaugh's confirmation, the rush through of the confirmation of ACB, and the revelation of the scope of Thomas's partisanship and succour from the right have basically killed this institution. Roberts: we have always thought he was an institution first kind of actor. He is now at the Rubicon.

There is no bottom for Republican voters. Where the F is the outrage? They don't care. Little D's and R's........tell us more about Hunter's laptop, and how it's important that our government isn't for sale.

Our country continues to circle the drain----if you're a Registered Republican and haven't sent one simple email to your two Senators, as well as your Rep sharing your outrage? This is on you. If you have....good on you, and thanks.

This would NEVER have been allowed by Republican voters or leaders when I was a kid. Its what I liked about them and their party.

Those days are SO long gone.

I postulated whether we were seeing the beginnings of the fall of the American empire a few years ago…..I got a ton of pushback…..doesn’t seem so crazy now. The signs were there. It’s remarkable that most people are asleep. The peasantry doesn’t care…..

[MDlaxfan76]

Thomas allegedly didn't disclose the $100k+ gift because the payments for the boarding school tuition were not for Thomas' child.

Thomas was "only" the legal guardian for his nephew. The kid lived with Clarence and Ginny for 13 years. Under the lame disclosure laws applicable to SCOTUS, disclosure only required for dependent children. Which is total forking garbage. As a legal guardian, Clarence is repsonsible for educating the kid. So the $100k is clearly a gift to Thomas.

And while living with Clarence and Ginny, the kid got to stay at the Adirondack resort and take cruises on the megayacht in the Caribbean and the Baltics. Those two mooch trips had not been previously reported.

All undisclosed by Clarence of course -- just personal hospitality. GMAFB.

Other federal judges can't accept any gift worth more than $50. And no more than $100 annually from any one person.

Can you imagine the howls if the judge was Sotomayor and the benefactor was George Soros?

Putting aside the ethical aspects, which seem ridiculously and outrageously obvious, how does the IRS treat these various types of "gifts"?

No big deal if below the annual threshold in aggregate from a single person, but the Crow gifts certainly appear to be way higher than $16,000 per year per person (Clarence plus Ginny =$32K). There's an exclusion for paying educational bills, but how does the IRS treat transfers of other value?...gift taxes to donor...but at what point does it become income to the receiver?

[ggait]

Clarence should be fine tax wise. His issues are ethics and disclosure.

If a giver gives more than $16k annually, the giver has to file a gift tax return. And the gift amount nicks the givers multi-million inheritance tax exclusion. If Harlan has already used up his exemption, then he pays tax on the gift to Clarence.

It isn't an accident that all this largesse to Clarence has been carefully crafted so as to avoid Clarence having to disclose any of the largesse. I mean the grift just doesn't work as well if the grift is disclose-able.

Wonder how much more we are going to find out about on this.

What a forking joke.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Clarence should be fine tax wise. His issues are ethics and disclosure.

If a giver gives more than $16k annually, the giver has to file a gift tax return. And the gift amount nicks the givers multi-million inheritance tax exclusion. If Harlan has already used up his exemption, then he pays tax on the gift to Clarence.

It isn't an accident that all this largesse to Clarence has been carefully crafted so as to avoid Clarence having to disclose any of the largesse. I mean the grift just doesn't work as well if the grift is disclose-able.

Wonder how much more we are going to find out about on this.

What a forking joke.

Wait….there is more….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investig ... as-conway/

[PizzaSnake]

Clarence should be fine tax wise. His issues are ethics and disclosure.

If a giver gives more than $16k annually, the giver has to file a gift tax return. And the gift amount nicks the givers multi-million inheritance tax exclusion. If Harlan has already used up his exemption, then he pays tax on the gift to Clarence.

It isn't an accident that all this largesse to Clarence has been carefully crafted so as to avoid Clarence having to disclose any of the largesse. I mean the grift just doesn't work as well if the grift is disclose-able.

Wonder how much more we are going to find out about on this.

What a forking joke.

Wait….there is more….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investig ... as-conway/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... rlan-crow/

And the hits keep coming...

"The same Texas billionaire who treated Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to lavish vacations paid private boarding school tuition for Thomas’s grandnephew, a young man the justice has said he raised as a son, according to a report.

Thomas did not disclose the payments, an omission that added to a growing outcry over the Supreme Court’s ethics practices that now includes criticism of both conservative and liberal justices.

ProPublica reported Thursday that Harlan Crow, a prominent Republican donor, paid tuition at Hidden Lake Academy in Georgia for Mark Martin, Thomas’s grandnephew, of whom Thomas had legal custody. The report said Crow also paid Martin’s tuition at Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia.

Critics say that by not disclosing the tuition and travel that Crow has funded over the years, Thomas hid the possibility that he would feel beholden to Crow and the conservative causes he supports. Thomas’s allies insist there is nothing wrong with accepting generosity from a longtime friend and say the payments did not need to be disclosed.

Also Thursday, a conservative news site questioned Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s decision not to recuse herself from two Supreme Court cases involving Penguin Random House, which publishes her books and has paid the justice about $3.6 million since 2009 — income she listed on her disclosure forms. She is not the only one with a potential conflict regarding Penguin Random House: Justice Neil M. Gorsuch has received $655,000 from the company, according to his financial disclosure reports, and he also did not recuse himself in a case that came before the court during his tenure. Thursday’s report by the Daily Wire mentioned only Sotomayor.

It is not clear whether justices must recuse themselves when they receive royalties from a contract with a publisher, because profits from books are specifically exempted by law from the total outside income a judge is allowed. But ethics experts pointed to a provision in law that calls for recusal when a justice’s “impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”

A court spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

Some members of Congress, along with court reform advocates, are calling on the justices to adopt stronger, more transparent ethics policies at a time when public confidence in the high court has declined significantly. The stream of news stories raising questions about the justices’ ethical conduct is a blow to the court’s reputation that could be avoided, said Amanda Frost, a legal ethics expert at the University of Virginia School of Law.

The reports are “yet another reason why the court needs clearer ethics policies,” Frost wrote in an email. “The Court could prevent this by establishing an ethics officer who can advise them on best practices and ensure consistent policies going forward.”

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Clarence Thomas gift disclosures
Crow tuition payment for Thomas relative adds to outcry over court ethics
Crow tuition payment for Thomas relative adds to outcry over court ethics
Complaints about Justice Thomas’s disclosures sent to judicial committee
Complaints about Justice Thomas’s disclosures sent to judicial committee
Clarence Thomas has for years claimed income from a defunct real estate firm
Clarence Thomas has for years claimed income from a defunct real estate fir...
Clarence Thomas might have recognized law at issue in his real estate deal
Clarence Thomas might have recognized law at issue in his real estate deal
Analysis
Senators call for probe of Thomas amid report of real estate deals with GOP donor
Senators call for probe of Thomas amid report of real estate deals with GOP...
Parsing Clarence Thomas’s statements on the gifts he didn’t disclose
Parsing Clarence Thomas’s statements on the gifts he didn’t disclose
Analysis
Justice Thomas: Advisers said no need to report travel with GOP donor
Justice Thomas: Advisers said no need to report travel with GOP donor
Supreme Court justices under new ethics disclosures on trips, other gifts
Supreme Court justices under new ethics disclosures on trips, other gifts
Justice Thomas accepted luxury travel for years from GOP donor, report says
Justice Thomas accepted luxury travel for years from GOP donor, report says
What is Bohemian Grove? The secretive camp visited by Clarence Thomas.
What is Bohemian Grove? The secretive camp visited by Clarence Thomas.
Who is Harlan Crow, the GOP megadonor who vacations with Justice Thomas?
Who is Harlan Crow, the GOP megadonor who vacations with Justice Thomas?
The new Clarence Thomas revelations are shocking. Democrats must act.
The new Clarence Thomas revelations are shocking. Democrats must act.
Opinion
Clarence Thomas has reported receiving only two gifts since 2004
Clarence Thomas has reported receiving only two gifts since 2004
End of carousel
Thomas did not respond to questions from ProPublica — or The Washington Post — about the tuition arrangement for his grandnephew. The publication cited a bank statement that showed Crow paid $6,200 in monthly tuition at Hidden Lake Academy in July 2009, and quoted a former administrator at the school saying the Texas billionaire covered the full year’s tuition.

But Thomas’s allies quickly defended the justice’s relationship with Crow as a deep, personal friendship not subject to disclosure rules and accused Democrats of a double standard in evaluating the off-the-bench activities of liberal justices. Attorney Mark Paoletta, a friend of Thomas’s, said in a statement that Crow’s payments went directly to the schools and that Thomas was not required to report them because the definition of a “dependent child” in the Ethics in Government Act does not include a grandnephew.

“Justice Thomas and his wife devoted twelve years of their lives to taking in and caring for a beloved child — who was not their own — just as Justice Thomas’s grandparents had done for him,” Paoletta said. “They made many personal and financial sacrifices to do this. And along the way, their friends joined them in doing everything possible to give this child a future.”

Federal ethics law requires top officials from all three branches of government, including Supreme Court justices, to file annual financial disclosure forms listing outside income and investments. A separate judicial conduct statute allows for the filing and investigation of misconduct complaints against lower-court judges.

The Supreme Court does not have such a process for misconduct complaints, or a binding ethics policy. The justices have discussed but failed to reach consensus on a policy, The Post reported this year, despite talks dating to at least 2019.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, held a hearing this week to consider legislation to require ethics standards for justices similar to those for members of Congress and other high-level government officials. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. declined Durbin’s invitation to testify, citing separation-of-powers concerns, and instead shared a statement from the nine justices detailing the ethical guidelines the court follows.

“I hope that the Chief Justice understands that something must be done,” Durbin said in a statement Thursday. “The reputation and credibility of the Court is at stake.”

Durbin said in an interview that he was uncertain whether his committee would soon vote on legislation pushing the court to adopt an ethics code. Without Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who is recovering from shingles in California, the committee would need Republican support to advance such legislation. But Durbin also declined to commit to pushing for that legislation even if Feinstein returns, saying Roberts should take that action on this own.

“It’s his court. It’s his legacy,” Durbin said. “And right now, it’s his challenge to see if he’ll put the most basic change in place and say that Supreme Court justices are subject to the same rules and guidelines as every other federal judge.”

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who has introduced legislation that would create a process for investigating misconduct and strengthen recusal and disclosure rules for the justices, said in a statement Thursday that the situation is “horribly wrong. … The Court has closed itself up like a turtle, pretending this is all okay.”

Many Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), have defended Thomas, dismissing the recent reports as an effort by liberals — and news organizations — to undermine the conservative majority that has quickly moved the court to the right.

On Thursday, the Twitter account of the House Judiciary Republicans suggested with a goat emoji that the conservative justice is “the greatest of all time.” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) called reports about Thomas and Crow a “hypocritical and dishonest smear job” and said the media “does not apply the same standard” for reporting on liberal justices.

Crow’s office issued a statement in which it did not dispute that Crow paid for Martin’s education. “Harlan Crow has long been passionate about the importance of quality education and giving back to those less fortunate, especially at-risk youth,” the statement said. “It’s disappointing that those with partisan political interests would try to turn helping at-risk youth with tuition assistance into something nefarious or political.”

ProPublica last month published a detailed report on Crow paying for Thomas’s luxury vacations. In response, the justice said he and his wife considered Crow and his wife to be “among our dearest friends” and that he had been advised he did not have to disclose the couple’s hospitality, which included travel on a private jet and yacht.

Thomas has not spoken publicly about an additional report from ProPublica, which said the justice did not disclose Crow’s purchase of three properties in Savannah, Ga., from Thomas in 2014, including the single-story house where Thomas’s mother was living and two vacant lots nearby. Experts have said the $133,363 transaction should have been reported on his financial disclosure forms.

Allegations from congressional Democrats that Thomas probably violated federal ethics laws have been sent to a committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, made up of federal judges, that is responsible for “addressing allegations of errors or omissions in the filing of financial disclosure reports.”

The heightened scrutiny has extended beyond Thomas. Politico reported last month that Gorsuch did not disclose that the chairman of a major law firm in 2017 bought a Colorado property in which the justice held an interest. Experts are debating whether he was required to report such a transaction. And there are questions about whether Sotomayor and Gorsuch should have participated in reviewing cases involving Penguin Random House, which publishes their books.

The court voted in February 2020 not to hear a copyright lawsuit against the company. In 2013, before Gorsuch joined the bench, the justices turned away a petition in another case involving Random House. As is customary, such rejections do not include a vote count, but Justice Stephen G. Breyer indicated he recused himself from considering both cases.

Like Sotomayor and Gorsuch, Breyer earned money from book deals with Penguin Random House — about $346,000 while he was on the court, according to his disclosure forms. But Breyer’s recusals were likely due to his wife’s shares of the British company Pearson, which previously owned a stake in Random House, said Gabe Roth of the court transparency nonprofit Fix the Court.

Roth said that under current rules justices need to recuse themselves if they own even a single share of stock in a company, but the obligation is less clear when it comes to book payments.

“Whether a justice is required to recuse might really be a question,” said Roth, who first highlighted the potential conflicts with the book payments to Sotomayor and Gorsuch. “But if a justice has become enriched because of their work with a litigant, it doesn’t really matter whether they own a share of stock or not.”

Two other justices, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson also have book contracts with divisions of Penguin Random House, but were not yet on the court when cases involving the publisher came up. Financial reports indicate that Gorsuch is planning another book, but with HarperCollins.

Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics expert at New York University School of Law, said recusal decisions are a question of judgment without “clear demarcation.” He characterized Sotomayor’s half-dozen book titles with Penguin Random House as an “ongoing commercial relationship” that “may reasonably lead to questions about her impartiality.”

The impartiality test, Gillers added, does not imply that a judge acted improperly, but is focused on “preserving public confidence in the courts avoiding public suspicion.”"

[Seacoaster(1)]

More news from the cesspool:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investig ... ce=twitter

"Conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo arranged for the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to be paid tens of thousands of dollars for consulting work just over a decade ago, specifying that her name be left off billing paperwork, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

In January 2012, Leo instructed the GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to bill a nonprofit group he advises and use that money to pay Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the documents show. The same year, the nonprofit, the Judicial Education Project, filed a brief to the Supreme Court in a landmark voting rights case.

Leo, a key figure in a network of nonprofits that has worked to support the nominations of conservative judges, told Conway that he wanted her to “give” Ginni Thomas “another $25K,” the documents show. He emphasized that the paperwork should have “No mention of Ginni, of course.”

Conway’s firm, the Polling Company, sent the Judicial Education Project a $25,000 bill that day. Per Leo’s instructions, it listed the purpose as “Supplement for Constitution Polling and Opinion Consulting,” the documents show.

In all, according to the documents, the Polling Company paid Thomas’s firm, Liberty Consulting, $80,000 between June 2011 and June 2012, and it expected to pay $20,000 more before the end of 2012. The documents reviewed by The Post do not indicate the precise nature of any work Thomas did for the Judicial Education Project or the Polling Company.

The arrangement reveals that Leo, a longtime Federalist Society leader and friend of the Thomases, has functioned not only as an ideological ally of Clarence Thomas’s but also has worked to provide financial remuneration to his family. And it shows Leo arranging for the money to be drawn from a nonprofit that soon would have an interest before the court.

In response to questions from The Post, Leo issued a statement defending the Thomases. “It is no secret that Ginni Thomas has a long history of working on issues within the conservative movement, and part of that work has involved gauging public attitudes and sentiment. The work she did here did not involve anything connected with either the Court’s business or with other legal issues,” he wrote. “As an advisor to JEP I have long been supportive of its opinion research relating to limited government, and The Polling Company, along with Ginni Thomas’s help, has been an invaluable resource for gauging public attitudes.”

Of the effort to keep Thomas’s name off paperwork, Leo said: “Knowing how disrespectful, malicious and gossipy people can be, I have always tried to protect the privacy of Justice Thomas and Ginni.”

Leo’s statement did not address questions about whether he had arranged other work for Ginni Thomas or how much money he directed to her in all from the nonprofit.

Conway, who was a senior adviser in the Trump White House, did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, on Capitol Hill last year. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
The Thomases did not respond to messages seeking comment. Ginni Thomas, a political activist and former GOP aide on Capitol Hill, has long maintained that she and her husband keep their careers separate.

In December 2012, the Judicial Education Project submitted an amicus brief in Shelby County v. Holder, a case challenging a landmark civil rights law aimed at protecting minority voters. The court struck down a formula in the Voting Rights Act that determined which states had to obtain federal clearance before changing their voting rules and procedures. Clarence Thomas was part of the 5-to-4 majority.

Thomas issued a concurring opinion in the case, arguing that the preclearance requirement itself is unconstitutional. Thomas’s opinion, which was consistent with a previous opinion he wrote, favored the outcome the Judicial Education Project and several other conservative organizations had advocated in their amicus briefs. He did not cite the Judicial Education Project brief.

Legal ethics experts disagreed about whether the arrangement outlined by Leo and the payments from Conway should have led Thomas to recuse himself from the Shelby case.

Federal law requires justices to recuse if their “impartiality might reasonably be questioned,” a standard that has not been well-defined as applied to filers of amicus briefs, the experts said. Law professor Kathleen Clark of Washington University said that if the Judicial Education Project paid Ginni Thomas $100,000 in the year and a half before it filed its brief, the size and timing of the payments would have been enough to cast doubt on Clarence Thomas’s impartiality and require his recusal. Law professor Stephen Gillers of New York University, however, said that as the rule is now interpreted, the link appeared too “attenuated” to require recusal.

But both experts said the arrangement shows that current ethics rules and disclosure requirements fail to protect public confidence in the independence of the courts. For example, although justices must report the name of companies that pay their spouses, they are not required to report the names of the companies’ clients. In this case, even if there were such a requirement, it is not clear that the Judicial Education Project would have been listed as a client, because the fees intended for Ginni Thomas were to go through Conway.

“The idea that Leonard Leo, who has a passionate ideological interest in how the court rules and who has worked hard for years to advance that interest, could pick up the phone and generate substantial compensation to Virginia Thomas, which also benefits Clarence Thomas — that idea is bad for the country, the court and the rule of law,” Gillers said. “It’s not the way the Supreme Court should do its business or allow its business to be done.”

The effort to keep Ginni Thomas’s name off paperwork makes the arrangement seem “more egregious,” said Clark.

In his statement to The Post, Leo said that Ginni Thomas’s work had no bearing on her husband’s opinions.

“I have known Clarence and Ginni Thomas since 1990. They are dear friends and are people of tremendous good will and integrity. Anybody who thinks that Justice Thomas is influenced in his work by what others say or do, including his wife Ginni, is completely ignorant of who this man is and what he stands for. And anybody who thinks Ginni Thomas would seek to influence the Supreme Court’s work is completely ignorant of the respect she has for her husband and the important role that he and his colleagues play in our society.”

Leo, 57, has for years been the behind-the-scenes leader of a network of interlocking nonprofits that has raised and spent hundreds of millions of dollars to support conservative judges and causes. Marble Freedom Trust, one of the organizations Leo chairs, received a contribution worth $1.6 billion in 2020 from a Chicago businessman, Barre Seid.

The Judicial Education Project was part of that network, although Leo was not listed on its tax filings or incorporation records. Leo’s allies founded the Judicial Education Project in 2004. Its mission was to “conduct research and educate the public on the role of the judiciary as laid out in the U.S. Constitution,” according to its tax filings. It secured tax-exempt status in 2011 and was not initially well-funded, filing paperwork with the IRS indicating it brought in less than $50,000 annually.

In 2012, it received about $1.5 million from donors whose identities were not publicly disclosed, the tax filings show. The Judicial Education Project spent $150,000 on “polling” that year, according to its tax filing. The filing does not identify which firm did the work.

The president of the Judicial Education Project that year was Neil Corkery, a Leo ally and bookkeeper for several of his nonprofit groups. Corkery certified on the group’s 2012 tax filing that no one other than the group’s officers or key employees had control over the nonprofit.

Corkery declined to comment.

Clarence Thomas has been under scrutiny since ProPublica revealed in April that Texas billionaire Harlan Crow took him on lavish vacations and also bought from Thomas and his relatives a Georgia home where Thomas’s mother lived; the transaction was not listed on the justice’s annual disclosure forms.

Senate Democrats this week held a hearing focused on Supreme Court ethics. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. declined an invitation to testify, offering instead a statement signed by all the justices in which they reaffirmed their commitment to abide by “foundational ethics principles and practices.”

During the hearing, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) mentioned Leo, who The Post has reported used the nonprofit network during the Trump administration to conduct publicity campaigns in support of nominees he helped select. “This guy doesn’t have business before the court,” Whitehouse said. “His business is the court.”

Leo’s ties to the Thomases go back decades and span their personal and professional lives.

Leo advised Clarence Thomas through his contentious confirmation process in the early 1990s and made Thomas the godfather of one of his children. Leo also has hosted the justice at his New England vacation home, according to the New York Times.

At a Federalist Society event in 2018, Thomas shared a stage with Leo and jokingly told him, “You’re the Number Three most powerful person in the world.”

The year before that, Ginni Thomas called Leo a “mentor to me” and “a hero” when she honored him with one of her Impact awards for conservative activists.

“Leonard Leo has single-handedly changed the face of the judiciary,” she said at the awards dinner, held at what was then the Trump International Hotel in Washington. “He has many hats. That isn’t even all he does. He does not really tell all that he does. But I know enough to know the man is a force of nature.”

In 2009, when Thomas founded a tea party-aligned nonprofit called Liberty Central, Leo served on the board, tax filings show. Corkery was the nonprofit’s accountant, public records show.

Thomas stepped away from Liberty Central in late 2010 amid controversy over whether its anonymous funding — including one donation for $500,000 — posed a potential conflict of interest for her husband. (Politico reported the following year that the donation had come from Crow.)

She then formed Liberty Consulting, a for-profit firm. On her LinkedIn page, Thomas describes her work as collaborating with “citizen activists, leaders and nonprofits to succeed and have impact in defending the principles that have made America an exceptional nation.”

Liberty Consulting began receiving payments from Conway’s firm within months of its creation in 2011, documents reviewed by The Post show. On multiple occasions, Thomas contacted the Polling Company to discuss her payments, the documents show.

The documents do not indicate whether Thomas knew of Leo’s role in the arrangement with Conway’s company, or of the Judicial Education Project’s role. (Conway sold the company in 2017 to what is now known as CRC Advisors, another firm that Leo chairs.)

Since its first amicus brief, in the voting rights case in 2012, the Judicial Education Project has submitted about a dozen amicus briefs to the Supreme Court. It has argued for limiting or rolling back race-based college admissions policies, regulations on greenhouse-gas emissions and gun-control measures.

In 2014, the group filed a brief in the Hobby Lobby case, which challenged a mandate in the Affordable Care Act that employers make contraception available to workers at no cost to the workers. The court’s ruling struck down part of the requirement in a split decision, with Clarence Thomas again in the narrow majority.

Thomas’s votes were aligned with the Judicial Education Project in six of the cases in which it filed briefs, including the Hobby Lobby case and two involving affirmative action at public universities. Thomas, a longtime critic of affirmative action, voted with the majority to uphold Michigan’s prohibition on race-based admissions at its public universities, and he dissented in a ruling that upheld admissions policies at the University of Texas.

Thomas’s votes did not align with the group’s position in three other cases, including one that largely upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions. The court did not take up all the cases in which the Judicial Education Project filed briefs.

The group’s interest in the Supreme Court extended beyond the courtroom. It spent money on campaigns to support President Donald Trump’s nominations of Brett M. Kavanaugh and Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. And it is listed as a funder in the credits of a 2020 documentary that celebrated Thomas. Clarence and Ginni Thomas are featured extensively in the documentary, titled “Created Equal: Justice Thomas In His Own Words,” talking about the justice’s upbringing and his judicial philosophy.

As the Judicial Education Project pushed for a conservative court, the group grew into a financial juggernaut and was rebranded as the 85 Fund. Between 2020 and 2021, its revenue nearly doubled from about $66 million to more than $117 million, tax forms show.

Even so, the group has never had more than a handful of employees, tax filings show. It has listed its main office address as a UPS Store situated amid rowhouses and retail stores in the Georgetown neighborhood of D.C."

[a fan]

“The idea that Leonard Leo, who has a passionate ideological interest in how the court rules and who has worked hard for years to advance that interest, could pick up the phone and generate substantial compensation to Virginia Thomas, which also benefits Clarence Thomas — that idea is bad for the country, the court and the rule of law,” Gillers said. “It’s not the way the Supreme Court should do its business or allow its business to be done.”

All they had to do was believe Anita Hill. She tried to tell us what a POS and immoral man we were dealing with......we didn't want to hear it, apparently.

Oh well. Nothing we can do now.

[cradleandshoot]

What is that term invented by Al Gore... No controlling legal authority?? The Supremes have been granted the power to do pretty much what ever they want to do. Roberts will never acquiesce to letting the Dems compose a code of conduct for the court. As far as justice Thomas is concerned, he found his own path towards reparations. Y'all should be happy for him.

This isn't a party thing. The proof to that would be the fit hitting the shan if Soros was taking Sotomayor on six figure whirlwind trips. Unless of course if that would be OK with Republicans.

Of course it is a party thing. Now the door to what bennies the members of the SCOTUS have received over the years will swing both ways. IMO there is a very good reason why justice Roberts doesn't want to venture down this road. He already knows the answer to the question.

[MDlaxfan76]

What is that term invented by Al Gore... No controlling legal authority?? The Supremes have been granted the power to do pretty much what ever they want to do. Roberts will never acquiesce to letting the Dems compose a code of conduct for the court. As far as justice Thomas is concerned, he found his own path towards reparations. Y'all should be happy for him.

This isn't a party thing. The proof to that would be the fit hitting the shan if Soros was taking Sotomayor on six figure whirlwind trips. Unless of course if that would be OK with Republicans.

Of course it is a party thing. Now the door to what bennies the members of the SCOTUS have received over the years will swing both ways. IMO there is a very good reason why justice Roberts doesn't want to venture down this road. He already knows the answer to the question.

I don't understand.

We should ALL be concerned with the loss of confidence in the Court's ethics.

But right now, that concern seems to be predominantly getting expressed by one party, though there are a few voices from traditional conservatives expressing concern as well.

It should be non-partisan.
It should not matter whether the Justice is "conservative" or "liberal".

What do you think Roberts "already knows"... other than his own wife has made $10 million in fees?
That those are going to be examined for conflicts?

[cradleandshoot]

What is that term invented by Al Gore... No controlling legal authority?? The Supremes have been granted the power to do pretty much what ever they want to do. Roberts will never acquiesce to letting the Dems compose a code of conduct for the court. As far as justice Thomas is concerned, he found his own path towards reparations. Y'all should be happy for him.

This isn't a party thing. The proof to that would be the fit hitting the shan if Soros was taking Sotomayor on six figure whirlwind trips. Unless of course if that would be OK with Republicans.

Of course it is a party thing. Now the door to what bennies the members of the SCOTUS have received over the years will swing both ways. IMO there is a very good reason why justice Roberts doesn't want to venture down this road. He already knows the answer to the question.

I don't understand.

We should ALL be concerned with the loss of confidence in the Court's ethics.

But right now, that concern seems to be predominantly getting expressed by one party, though there are a few voices from traditional conservatives expressing concern as well.

It should be non-partisan.
It should not matter whether the Justice is "conservative" or "liberal".

What do you think Roberts "already knows"... other than his own wife has made $10 million in fees?
That those are going to be examined for conflicts?

We will all have to wait for the MSM to complete their deep dive into all 9 of the SCOTUS justices. The focus has been on one justice. As far as I'm concerned this one justice should simply claim reparations.