New Senate Report Confirms What We Already Knew: Some Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court are Big-Time Crooks

By: Donald V. Watkins

Copyrighted and Published on December 21, 2024

Anthony Scalia (left), Clarence Thomas (center), and Samuel Alito (right).

An Editorial Opinion

Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee released a detailed Majority Staff Report that confirms what most Americans already knew – some Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court are big-time crooks.  The 93-page Report presents these 14 key findings (together with supporting exhibits) :

1. The Supreme Court has mired itself in an ethical crisis of its own making by failing to address justices’ ethical misconduct for decades.

2. Justice Anthony Scalia accepted lavish gifts from billionaires and others with business before the Court for more than a decade.

3. Justice Scalia misused the “personal hospitality” exemption to the Ethics in Government Act to hide or obscure lavish gifts.

4. Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted lavish gifts from billionaires with business before the Court for almost his entire tenure as a Justice.

5. Justice Thomas chose to ignore legal obligations to disclose lavish gifts after media scrutiny over his disclosures in 2004.

6. Justice Samuel Alito misused the “personal hospitality” exemption when he did not disclose gifts of transportation and lodging he received for a luxury fishing trip to Alaska in 2008.

7. Individuals seeking to influence the Court have used gifts to gain private access to the Justices.

8. Leonard Leo has made a career of advancing corporate and conservative movement interests by facilitating lavish gifts and private access to the Justices.

9. The Justices regularly fail to identify obvious conflicts of interest that require their recusal under federal law.

10. Justices treat their “duty to sit” as a license for the appearance of impropriety, rather than a constraint on their conduct.

11. Justice Alito has created the appearance of impropriety in several instances that necessitate his recusal in specific cases under federal law.

12. Justice Thomas has violated federal law on multiple occasions by refusing to recuse himself in cases where his wife’s interests could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding.

13. The Judicial Conference has failed to enforce financial disclosure regulations and properly review financial disclosure reports of the Justices.

14. Having refused to address these myriad ethical issues, the Court has demonstrated its inability or unwillingness to police its own ethical conduct.

Justice Scalia died on February 13, 2016.  Scalia was Justice Thomas' mentor on the Court. As a crook himself, Justice Scalia taught Thomas how to sell his vote on the Court for the highest monetary value and how to conceal his bribery from public view.

Clarence Thomas has ranked in over $4 million in "gifts" and "love offerings" from billionaires who cultivated a friendship with him AFTER he became a Supreme Court Justice. In 32 years on the Court, Thomas has NEVER voted against their legal or economic interests.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has been aware of the Thomas and Alito bribery schemes the entire time he has been the nation’s top law enforcement official. However, Garland has lacked the courage to prosecute these Justices on public corruption and tax evasion charges. Thomas and Alito view Merrick Garland as a toothless "punk" whom they can be runover at-will.

Meanwhile a Gallup poll released on December 17, 2024, shows that public confidence in the nation’s judicial system and courts has dropped to 35%.  Now, we know why.