U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas made at least three additional trips funded by the billionaire’s benefactor Harlan Crow The conservative judge did not announce this, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said on Thursday.
Crow, a Texas businessman and Republican donor, disclosed details of the judge’s travels between 2017 and 2021 in response to a Judiciary Committee vote last November to grant subpoenas to Crow and another influential conservative, said the committee’s chairman, Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat. Representing Illinois.
Related: Lindsey Graham vows to block Democrats’ Supreme Court ethics law
“The Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation into the Supreme Court’s ethics crisis provides new information – like what we revealed (Thursday) – and makes it crystal clear that the Supreme Court needs an enforceable code of conduct as its members continue to choose not to do that. to meet the moment,” Durbin said.
A Supreme Court spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did an attorney for Crow.
Thomas was previously criticized for not disclosing gifts from Crow. Most recently, Thomas belatedly revised his 2019 financial disclosure form last week to acknowledge that Crow had paid for his “food and lodging” at a hotel in Bali, Indonesia, and at a club in California.
But Thomas’ recent filing did not reveal that Crow had paid for his private jet travel in connection with the trips to Bali and California, and an eight-day yacht excursion in Indonesia, omissions that were revealed Thursday in a redacted document that The Durbin’s office said there were travel routes where Crow had provided the justice with transportation.
The document shows private jet travel in May 2017 between St. Louis, Missouri, Montana State, and Dallas. It also shows private jet travel in March 2019 between Washington DC and Savannah, Georgia, and private jet travel in June 2021 between Washington DC and San Jose, California.
Under pressure from criticism over ethics, after a series of arguments that focused mainly on Thomas and Samuel Alito, the most conservative justices, the nine justices of the Supreme Court adopted their first code of conduct last November.
However, critics and some Democrats in Congress have said the code does not go far enough to promote transparency, leaves decisions on whether to take back cases up to the judges themselves and lacks an enforcement mechanism.
Earlier this week, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would block Democrats’ efforts to pass an ethics law to rein in the U.S. Supreme Court.
And Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the court has been “captured and corrupted by money and extremism,” provoking a “crisis of legitimacy” that threatens the stability of American democracy.
Reuters contributed to the reporting
