Clarence Thomas Should Be Investigated For Nondisclosure, Democratic Lawmakers Say

WASHINGTON -- Democratic lawmakers on Thursday called for a federal investigation into Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' failure to report hundreds of thousands of dollars on annual financial disclosure forms.

Led by House Rules Committee ranking member Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), 20 House Democrats sent a letter to the Judicial Conference of the United States -- the entity that frames guidelines for the administration of federal courts -- requesting that the conference refer the matter of Thomas' non-compliance with the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 to the Department of Justice.

The letter outlines how, throughout his 20-year tenure on the Supreme Court, Thomas routinely checked a box titled "none" on his annual financial disclosure forms, indicating that his wife had received no income. But in reality, the letter states, she earned nearly $700,000 from the Heritage Foundation from 2003 to 2007 alone.

Slaughter called it "absurd" to suggest that Thomas may not have known how to fill out the forms.

"It is reasonable, in every sense of the word, to believe that a member of the highest court in the land should know how to properly disclose almost $700,000 worth of income," Slaughter said in a statement. "To not be able to do so is suspicious, and according to law, requires further investigation. To accept Justice Thomas’s explanation without doing the required due diligence would be irresponsible."

The letter also cites a June report in The New York Times indicating Thomas may have regularly benefited from the use of a private yacht and airplane owned by real estate magnate Harlan Crow and failed to disclose the travel as a gift or travel reimbursement.

Current law requires the Judicial Conference to refer to the Attorney General any judge the conference "has reasonable cause to believe has willfully failed to file a report or has willfully falsified or willfully failed to file information required to be reported."

Slaughter's press statement also notes that the Heritage Foundation was a prominent opponent of the Affordable Care Act, an issue the Supreme Court is expected to rule on by next summer.

"The Attorney General would be the appropriate person to investigate the issue of non-disclosure, and that is why my colleagues and I are making this request today," Slaughter said. "I cannot determine guilt or innocence, but I can request that the government do our due diligence in investigating a situation that strikes me, and many other members of Congress, as suspicious."

Other members of Congress on the letter include Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), Mike Honda (D-Calif.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Christopher Murphy (D-Conn.), John Garamendi (D-Calif.), Pete Stark (D-Calif.), Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), John Olver (D-Mass.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Donna Edwards (D-Md.), Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), Bob Filner (D-Calif.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), John Conyers (D-Mich.), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.).

Comments

[Lawrence Kurnarsky]

03:59 PM on 11/02/2011

It is de facto that supreme court justices, like bank executives, ARE often above the law. Conversely, people in America's poorest neighborhoods ARE often below the law. They are incarcerated and sometimes executed when a wealthy person or someone of high status would not have been having been accused of the same crime.

So this IS America, the real America. This is the real America that MOST Americans deny, perhaps out of a misplaced sense of patriotism. Historically, ever since the genocide of the Native American population, moving on through slavery, and even to today with the harassment of America's undocumented workers, America has refused to look at itself in the mirror. Americans have historically refused to acknowledge that this unfair, unjust, de facto America, this real America, is the antithesis of the America Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, or Thomas Payne had envisioned.

Now is the time to begin to turn this around. Lets begin with Justice Thomas and move on quickly to the bankers. Give them their day in court and hand out appropriate sentences. Hand out sentences that are NOT appropriate to the status, wealth, and class of the law breaker, but appropriate to the destructiveness of their crimes. If Thomas is guilty as charged he has jeopardized the judicial process of law and order in the USA. If the bankers are guilty as charged, they have collapsed a world economy.

[Siera Griffin]

11:51 AM on 11/01/2011

The real question is why was this man ever appointed to the United States Supreme Court? Anita Hill allegations anybody?

[thirdcloud]

12:09 PM on 10/22/2011

The "appearance of impropriety" has long been the standard for practicing lawyers. Disregard of this rule of professional responsibility, regardless of whether Supreme Court Justices are required to follow State Bar rules demonstrates the malice and level of disregard which makes this entire court a disfunctional partisan JOKE!
Add Scalia and Alito they are no better just a whole lot smarter.

[iLoveOldNY]

08:31 PM on 10/16/2011

It was wrong when House Member Charlie Rangel didn't disclose the money he made from his home in the Dominican Republic.

But Thomas isn't a House Member. He is a Supreme Court Justice.

I think it is time that Thomas retires, or stays and is investigated.

[askandtell]

10:32 PM on 10/08/2011

Ginni Thomas sits down with Rep Joe Walsh; her definition of a politician with values.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/31/leaders-with-ginni-thomas-rep-joe-walsh/

[mskimberlyclark]

08:32 PM on 10/08/2011

He's already gotten a lot of mileage out of "high-tech lynching" How is he going to portray this in a light that makes him look like the victim of racism. Any justice who hasn't asked a question in five years can't be very . . . curious. What evidence do we have that he even knows what is going on around him other that a 100% Scalia mirrored voting record. His race is the only thing that keeps him from being on of the first Justices removed from the courts. Does this country have the ethical fortitude to do it? Of course not.

[Marc Lewis]

08:17 PM on 10/08/2011

As I recall, Thomas does not write opinions (or very, very few) and hardly ever asks a question in open Court. Either he has a closed mind and has pre-judged nearly everything that ever comes before the Court, or he's just sitting back, waiting for the phone call from his Wealthy / Corporate Overlords to tell him how to vote.

[The Accountant]

02:13 PM on 10/08/2011

I did a great deal of research on Harlan Crow back in 2005 and 2006 because I was involved in a criminal case which indirectly involved Harlan Crow. I found that several gifts were disclosed coming from Crow to Thomas. What it told me at the time (Harlan was a trustee on campaign funds for GW Bush in 2004) was that Harlan and his cronies were controlling at least a piece of the Supreme Court. Pretty powerful and a bit frightening....now we find amidst all those disclosures Thomas was hiding some of the information. I don't think it is a mistake! It is a sad state of affairs when the Supreme Court Justices can be bought and sold. Did I mention Harlan Crow is a prejudice man? Curious, huh?

[DavidEdwardOliver1973]

12:23 PM on 10/08/2011

"Now watch Clarence Thomas get away with it because he's Supreme Court judge!"

[The Accountant]

02:17 PM on 10/08/2011

I don't want to watch that. I pray the justice system works at some level in this country.

[joemack910]

09:46 AM on 10/11/2011

And tim gietner? also 450000 goverment workers who also owe unpaid taxs to the tune of?

[rnkro]

08:48 AM on 10/08/2011

" POWER TENDS TO CORRUPT, AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY".

[Beck rolls]

07:20 PM on 10/07/2011

Thomas MUST be STOPPED. He believes in constitutionally-limited government, free markets and individual rights. He must be stopped.

[joemack910]

09:50 AM on 10/11/2011

Why he wants to hold this country to the basics our founding fathers wrote in the constatution!
Read it some time it lets you say crazy things like he should go.

[rnkro]

06:02 PM on 10/07/2011

I don't care if your a judge, district attorney, or the president of the United States, everyone needs to be held accountable for their own actions. They should not have immunity when they break the law or violate the Constitutional of the United States. Equal Justice For All.

[joemack910]

09:50 AM on 10/11/2011

Tim Geitner?

[Diane Talik]

04:33 PM on 10/06/2011

Thomas' wife said that one of the things that made their marriage good was that they hold the same political values and worked toward the same political goals. In addition, his deliberate cover-up of her salary should get him a foot in the butt on his way OUT of the Supreme Court.

[Ken Ifill]

10:52 PM on 10/05/2011

Uncle Clarence has been on the take from day one. Unfortunately, he is just a greedy shameless puppet

[429freckles]

10:21 PM on 10/05/2011

Time to call it quits Thomas.