Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) vowed the panel will take action in response to a report that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, conservative activist Ginni Thomas, accepted luxurious gifts from a billionaire Republican donor for decades.
According to an investigation by ProPublica, Thomas took luxury trips on yachts and private jets owned by Dallas businessman Harlan Crow. Thomas did not disclose the travel according to his financial filings with the Supreme Court, ProPublica said.
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“The highest court in the land shouldn’t have the lowest ethical standards,” Durbin said in a statement released Thursday. “The behavior is simply inconsistent with the ethical standards the American people expect of any public servant, let alone a Justice on the Supreme Court.”
“Today’s report demonstrates, yet again, that Supreme Court Justices must be held to an enforceable code of conduct, just like every other federal judge. The Pro Publica report is a call to action, and the Senate Judiciary Committee will act,” he added.
The report comes as Senate Democrats were already considering using this year’s funding legislation for the Supreme Court as a way to push the justices to adopt an ethics code. A group is proposing language be attached to the next fiscal spending bill that would require the Supreme Court to adopt more transparent processes for recusals and for investigating ethics-related allegations against the justices.
“It is unacceptable that the Supreme Court has exempted itself from the accountability that applies to all other members of our federal courts, and I believe Congress should act to remedy this problem,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) in a statement.
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An ethics code requirement in the annual appropriations bill would require bipartisan support. The ProPublica report details Thomas’s luxury travel, which included trips to New Zealand, Indonesia, California, Texas, and Georgia.
