APRIL 2023 IGNOMINIOUS ABSURDITY OF THE MONTH: THE IGGY

1. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. I haven’t nominated Clarence Thomas previously for a monthly IGGY because, well, as we all know, Thomas doesn’t talk much, even in Supreme Court sessions. The paucity of absurd utterances, however, shouldn’t detract from the inescapable truth that the Thomaster is a genuinely ignominious person, validated by 32 years of SCOTUS votes and opinions.

This said, let me ask you a question. If you were a U.S. Supreme Court justice, would you accept lavish vacations , like nine days of cruising in Indonesia on a fully staffed superyacht, from a large Republican donor billionaire who might be nudging you to return verdicts that comport with his narrow worldview? Wait, don’t answer right away! What if the billionaire in question also had a giant cache of Nazi stuff, including a signed copy of Mein Kampf, two Hitler paintings, and swastika-emblazoned napkins, would that sweeten this briny bucket of sauerkraut for you? (While this doesn’t confirm he’s a Nazi sympathizer, it does raise questions.)

And if such rococo extravagance weren’t enough, what if that billionaire paid you and your family over six figures for three properties in Savannah, Georgia, including a house where your mother lived, and continued to be allowed to live, rent free, after a remodeling? The rest of the property is to be used—you guessed it—for a Justice Thomas museum

And there’s more. If you reported rental income totaling up to $750,000 over the last 17 years from a family real estate company called Ginger, Ltd Partnership that shut down in 2006 (yes, from a ghost company), would you clarify your financial connection?

Well, maybe if you were an ethical person facing potential conflicts of interest you could resist temptation, but if you were Clarence Thomas, the SCOTUS with the mostess, you’d jump at the opportunities-- and, you wouldn’t disclose them as consistent with Federal disclosure laws.

By now you’ve no doubt read or heard about the bombshell ProPublica report tying Justice Thomas to billionaire weirdo/GOP megadonor Harlan Crow. According to ProPublica, Thomas and his wife have taken vacations in private jets and yachts with Crow worth well over a hundred grand nearly every year for more than two decades—none of which were disclosed.

Crow is a longtime member of the board of the American Enterprise Institute, a major right-wing think tank. During those years, which coincide closely with his dear personal friendship with Clarence Thomas, AEI has filed amicus briefs in multiple Supreme Court cases. But that’s not all! In addition to his Nazi shit, Crow also has a statue Garden of Evil adorned with the graven images of history’s most egregious despots, including Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and Albanian Stalinist Enver Hoxha.

A Thomas statement to set the record straight is remarkable Bottom of Formin its existence as well as its content—he’s not usually big on answering to the little people.

“Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over twenty-five years. As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them. 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. I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines. These guidelines are now being changed, as the committee of the Judicial Conference responsible for financial disclosure for the entire federal judiciary just this past month announced new guidance. And, it is, of course, my intent to follow this guidance in the future.”

“Family trips,” he says. Quite a stark contrast with a Crow-funded documentary on Thomas in which the justice presented himself as a regular guy. “I prefer the RV parks. I prefer the Walmart parking lots to the beaches and things like that. There’s something normal to me about it,” he said. “I come from regular stock, and I prefer that—I prefer being around that.”

Of course, this isn’t the first time Thomas’s objectivity and ethical conduct have been questioned. There’s that whole “his wife is a far-right goofball who’s trying to end American democracy bit.” But that doesn’t mean conservatives have run out of excuses for his sketchy behavior.

Imagine if the right’s ubiquitous bugaboo George Soros flew Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson to Gstaad for a three-day ski weekend. Republicans would freak. Hell, imagine if Soros took any one of them out for a frozen yogurt. Tucker Carlson would be compelled to do a two-hour investigative report.

Thomas says he’ll disclose in future now that we all know about his vacations anyway. But while his legal requirement may be for disclosure, the ethical issues involved in him accepting such largesse from a major political donor and AEI board member don’t disappear. Then again, Clarence Thomas doesn’t care much for ethics. (And the claim that there is never any discussion of matters before the court? That one falls under the category of “would be hilarious if it weren’t so dangerous.”)

The cascade of stories about Thomas threatens to continue to undermine the legitimacy of this Supreme Court.