Justice Clarence Thomas: An Apex Court in Ethical Crisis

In recent weeks, Justice Clarence Thomas' unethical behavior has brought public scrutiny to the conduct of the Supreme Court. As a result, the apex court is fast losing its legitimacy in the public eye. Even when no real corruption is present, the mere perception of impropriety and conflict of interest in the court should raise everyone's eyebrows. After all, the high court is the last resort in restoring the fundamental rights of a person deprived in society.

In the past decades, the high court's justices conducted themselves with absolute decorum, devoid of ethical lapses; the past conservative members of the court, such as chief justice William Rehnquist, moderates like Anthony Kennedy, and liberals like David Souter, although from different judicial philosophies, all protected the court's integrity. But nowadays, some justices on the court no longer feel bound by those same ethics.

Justice Thomas has exhibited a propensity for ethical lapses more than any other justice on the Supreme Court. Yet, he continues to justify his moral failings as if justices are above the law and not subject to public scrutiny. Justice Clarence Thomas is the longest-serving associate justice of the Supreme Court. Thomas' longevity on the bench and the high court's unique role should have accorded him a sense of probity and rectitude in dispensing his duty as a Supreme Court associate justice. Again, I want to remind you that Thomas's political ideology or judicial philosophy isn't relevant here. Still, his character as an elite jurist with a wide-ranging reach to America's life and culture warrants public scrutiny.

For over twenty years, Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni received lavish vacations, flying on a Republican megadonor's private jet, traveling in his superyacht, and staying in that donor's exclusive private resort in the Adirondacks and elsewhere – all costing hundreds of thousands if not in the millions of dollars. Thomas never disclosed the gifts in his annual filings, whereas other local and federal judges would have reported the contributions and paid taxes on them appropriately.

UNLIKE STATE AND FEDERAL JUDGES, the US Supreme Court has no ethics code and must comply with ethics and anti-conflict-of-interest guidelines. This reality is an absurdity. Even in the private sector, there are guidelines on what amount of gift is reportable, and people strictly abide by them.

It is one unethical episode after the other with Thomas. The same private donor donated $500,000 to Ginni Thomas to start Liberty Central, a now-defunct conservative group. It was undisclosed. Ginni, who is very active in partisan politics, allegedly plotted to block the peaceful transfer of power in the US government. This anti-government activity by an associate justice's wife is unheard of in our history. And Justice Thomas declined to recuse himself from the case involving his wife's political conduct.

No, it didn't end there. The same Republican megadonor, Harlan Crow – who also confirmed spending tens of thousands of dollars to improve the house and its adjacent properties --purchased three properties in Savanah, Georgia., from Thomas in 2014. Among the properties was the single-story house where Thomas' mother has lived rent-free. Crow did not buy the properties for commercial purposes. Instead, he bought them to provide shelter for Thomas's mother. Crow also paid thousands of dollars in tuition for Justice Thomas' grandnephew. But, again, Thomas failed to disclose these gifts in addition to the $133,363 he reportedly realized from the real estate transaction.

So, I beg to ask the question. Why is this person so generous to Justice Thomas?

1. Do you believe the Court should have a code of conduct?
2. Do you also want the US Supreme Court or the US Senate should investigate Justice Thomas for ethical lapses?

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