Associate Justice Clarence Thomas joins other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a new group portrait, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, on Oct. 7, 2022.J. Scott Applewhite/The Associated Press
Conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has for decades accepted luxury trips from a Dallas businessman without publicly disclosing them despite a federal law requiring disclosure of most gifts, a media report said on Thursday, prompting Senate Democrats to call for an investigation.
The report by ProPublica found that Justice Thomas has repeatedly vacationed with real estate magnate and Republican donor Harlan Crow, including on his private jet and superyacht in the United States and around the globe. The news outlet said the frequency of the gifts has “no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Justice Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The report raises new questions over potential conflicts of interest involving the justices and the court, which has endured escalating criticism for its lack of a formal ethics code.
Mr. Crow told ProPublica in a statement that he and his wife have been friends with Justice Thomas and his wife since 1996 and have “never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue.”
Senate judiciary committee chair Dick Durbin said his panel “will act” based on the report, without specifying what steps it would take.
“The highest court in the land shouldn’t have the lowest ethical standards,” said Mr. Durbin, a Democrat.
Mr. Durbin said the justices must be held to an enforceable code of conduct like other federal judges, who are instructed to avoid even the “appearance of impropriety.”
Chief Justice Roberts has said justices consult that code in assessing their own ethical obligations.
Democratic U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse called on Chief Justice Roberts to ensure a robust investigation is carried out.
“This cries out for the kind of independent investigation that the Supreme Court – and only the Supreme Court, across the entire government – refuses to perform,” Mr. Whitehouse said on Twitter.
Gabe Roth, who heads the reform group Fix the Court, said lawmakers need to lead a “reimagining” of the court’s “responsibilities when it comes to basic measures of oversight.”
The ProPublica report is the latest revelation to prompt ethics concerns about Justice Thomas. Previous reports of his wife Virginia (Ginni) Thomas’s involvement in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, along with Justice Thomas’s decision not to recuse himself from election-related cases, raised questions about his judicial impartiality.
Justice Thomas’s failure to report the trips provided by Mr. Crow appears to violate a federal law requiring that justices, judges and other federal officials disclose most gifts, ProPublica reported, citing legal-ethics experts.
Justice Thomas, perhaps the court’s most conservative member, joined the bench for a lifetime appointment in October, 1991, after being nominated by Republican then-president George H.W. Bush.