Twenty-two Democrats from the House and Senate wrote to Chief Justice John Roberts and asked him to look into whether Thomas took “luxury trips” and other gifts from a big Republican supporter without permission.
On Friday, eleven Democrats from the House and the same number from the Senate wrote an open letter to the chief justice asking that something be done right away. The letter makes a reference to the news from Thursday that Thomas had taken “luxury trips” from GOP donor and Dallas real estate mogul Harlan Crow for more than 20 years without saying anything. Parliament members have spoken out against “acts at the Supreme Court that are unethical and may be illegal.”
So far, the court hasn’t done much, if anything, to look into these claims. The letter says that the situation has caused the public’s trust in the Supreme Court to “crater to an all-time low.” We ask you, as Chief Justice, to “protect the public’s faith in the judiciary” by looking into these claims in a quick, thorough, fair, and open way.
Lawmakers brought up the fact that the Supreme Court hasn’t said anything since Thomas’s comments on Friday.
An associate Supreme Court judge said on Friday that he “was told” he didn’t have to talk about the trips, which included a trip to Indonesia in 2019, a ship to New Zealand almost ten years ago, and a trip to an all-male resort in California called Bohemian Grove. His wife Ginni Thomas, who is a well-known conservative campaigner, was with him when he made the comment.
Crow claimed, though, that he never meant for the free trips and other gifts to sway the judge’s decision.
The lawmakers asked for the investigation because they “have reason to believe” that Crow is connected to several groups that sent amicus briefs to the Supreme Court. They asked Roberts to find out if Justice Thomas took anyone with him on any of his trips who had “interests related to his official duties.”
The letter was started by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA). Both are Democrats and chairs of the federal courts subcommittees on their Judiciary committees. It was signed by Reps. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Tom Carper of Delaware, Alex Padilla of California, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Peter Welch of Vermont, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii. (HI).
The letter was signed by a wide range of House Democrats, including Jerry Nadler from New York, Adam Schiff from California, Gerry Connolly from Virginia, Deborah Ross from North Carolina, Mike Quigley from Illinois, Madeleine Dean from Pennsylvania, Pramila Jayapal from Washington, Cori Bush from Missouri, Sheila Jackson Lee from Texas, and Steve Cohen from California. (TN).
Leaders in Congress have told Chief Justice John Roberts that if he doesn’t take action, they will “continue to press Congress to act to restore accountability and ethics at the highest Court in the land.”
Even though he didn’t sign the letter with his colleagues on Friday, Illinois Democrat and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Dick Durbin said that his committee “will act” in response to Thursday’s ProPublica story. But the group’s exact goals are still not clear.
Senate Democrats are thinking about putting a clause in this year’s funding bill for the Supreme Court that would force the judges to adopt an ethics code that would require public recusals and investigations. The second most powerful Democrat in the Senate has long pushed for a rule of ethics for judges.