Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
By: The opinion Posted Aug 31, 2023, 1:58 pm EDT
US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomasquestioned for having accepted luxury trips from a billionaire Republican donor, made public this Thursday the displacements made in 2022 but claimed security reasons to travel by private jet.
His financial report indicates that he accepted from real estate magnate Harlan Crow two trips to Dallas (Texas), one to Salt Lake City (Utah) and another to Keese Mill (New York) between February and December 2022.
The first, between February 3 and 5 of last year, was aiming to be the keynote speaker at the American Business Institute conference in Dallas. His return came by private plane, he said, due to an unexpected snowstorm.
Thomas returned to Dallas again between May 12 and 14 to participate again in a conference of the American Business Institute. He had free transportation and meals, while in Salt Lake City, between March 10 and 12, also as a speaker, he was provided with transportation, meals, and lodging.
The last trip, to Keese Mill in Julyhe was already a guest of Crow, and there he also had free travel, meals and accommodation.
Thomas justified in his financial report that in May he was recommended to go by private plane due to an increased security risk after the Supreme Court ruling, which in June of last year repealed the protection of the right to abortion at the federal level.
The magistrate also considered that he was not obliged to describe his stay in July with the Crow as a “gift”.
The magistrate reiterated in that letter that, until the new policy in this regard established in March in matters of “personal hospitality”, he was exempt from having to declare this type of travel.
The investigative journalistic organization ProPublica published in early August that Thomas accepted at least 38 luxury vacations from US millionaires previously undisclosed, including stays at luxurious resorts in Florida and Jamaica, as well as 26 private jet flights, eight helicopter flights and tickets to major sporting events.
Many of these trips were also attended by his wife, conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas.who was involved in the campaign for former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021) to try to annul Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 elections.
The problem with all those trips is that Thomas did not include them in the financial reports that he must submit to the Supreme Court, in compliance with an anti-corruption law that was passed after the Watergate scandal in the 1970s.
ProPublica was the one who revealed in April that Thomas had vacationed for more than two decades on superyachts and private planes paid for by Crow.
Thomas, 75 years old and serving for life, was appointed in 1991 by Republican President George HW Bush (1989-1993) and, during his more than thirty years on the Supreme Court, he has held some of the most conservative positions on issues such as abortion and the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.
Following these revelations, some members of the Democratic Party questioned his behavioramong them Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who considered that he should be subjected to an impeachment process (political trial), the only way that exists to remove a Supreme Court magistrate, since these positions are for life.
With information from Efe.
Keep reading:
– Scandal in the Supreme Court by judges who accept lavish gifts
– Why should Supreme Court justices have term limits and a code of ethics?
– Clarence Thomas, amid scandal over accepting trips on yachts and private jets from billionaire