U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been roundly criticized for accepting luxury gifts and trips from Harlan Crow, an extraordinarily wealthy Republican donor, as originally reported by Pro Publica. According to The New York Times, for more than 20 years Crow bestowed lavish gifts upon Thomas and his wife Virginia, including trips on Crow’s private jet and superyacht, tours through Indonesia, commissioning a portrait of himself and Thomas smoking cigars in Adirondack chairs, financing a documentary about Thomas, and donating $500,000 to Liberty Central, an advocacy group Virginia Thomas founded. Although justices are required to report gifts on annual public forms, Thomas failed to report these gifts for the past 19 years. In addition, according to press reports, in 2014 Crow bought Thomas’ mother’s home and allowed her to live there rent-free, and he paid for the education of Thomas’ great-nephew, whom Thomas raised since the young man was 6 years old. Tens of thousands of dollars were also paid to Virginia Thomas by conservative activist Leonard Leo. Thomas failed to report these transactions.
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch reportedly sold a $1.8 million property to the CEO of a major law firm that has been active in many cases before the court and did not divulge the name of the CEO in his financial reporting or recuse himself from deciding those cases. Some Supreme Court justices over the years received hefty payments from Scalia Law School, including luxurious all-inclusive trips around the world for short-term teaching or conferences. None of these financial handouts triggered any consequences for the justices. No formal code of conduct exists for the Supreme Court.
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