Clarence Thomas

 

Official portrait of U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas

Image Source: Steve Petteway, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

What Was the Accusation?

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas faced an ethics controversy in April 2023 after ProPublica reported that he had accepted luxury travel and hospitality for more than two decades from Harlan Crow, a wealthy real-estate developer and prominent Republican donor, without reporting many of the trips on his annual financial-disclosure forms. The reporting documented travel that included flights on Crow’s private jet, cruises aboard his superyacht, and stays at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks. One 2019 trip to Indonesia included private air travel and island-hopping aboard Crow’s yacht; ProPublica estimated that chartering comparable transportation independently could have cost more than $500,000.

The controversy centered not simply on Thomas’s friendship with Crow, but on whether federal disclosure requirements required Thomas to report transportation and other benefits he received. Ethics specialists quoted by news organizations disagreed over aspects of the older judiciary guidance, particularly the scope of the “personal hospitality” exemption, while several experts maintained that private transportation should have been disclosed. The Judicial Conference revised its financial-disclosure guidance in March 2023 to make clear that transportation provided as personal hospitality was not exempt from disclosure.

On April 7, Thomas issued a rare public statement. He did not dispute taking trips with Harlan and Kathy Crow. Instead, he described the Crows as close personal friends and said that early in his Supreme Court tenure he had sought guidance from colleagues and others in the judiciary and had been advised that this kind of personal hospitality from friends without business before the Court was not reportable. Thomas said he had tried to follow that advice and the disclosure guidelines, and he promised to follow the newly revised guidance in the future. In 2024, Thomas amended his financial disclosure to acknowledge that two 2019 trips involving Crow should have been reported, including travel connected to Indonesia and the Bohemian Grove.

Key Apologia Strategies

Defeasibility, Bolstering, Corrective Action

Video

N/A

Transcript

Statement from Justice Clarence Thomas on April 7, 2023:

Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over twenty-five years. As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them.

Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable. I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.

These guidelines are now being changed, as the committee of the Judicial Conference responsible for financial disclosure for the entire federal judiciary just this past month announced new guidance. And, it is, of course, my intent to follow this guidance in the future.

Sources

Kaplan, J., Elliott, J., & Mierjeski, A. (2023, April 6). Clarence Thomas and the billionaire. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow

Sherman, M. (2023, April 7). Justice Thomas says he didn’t have to disclose luxury trips paid for by Republican donor. Associated Press. https://www.pressherald.com/2023/04/07/justice-thomas-says-he-didnt-have-to-disclose-luxury-trips-paid-by-republican-donor/

Barnes, R., Marimow, A. E., & Wang, A. B. (2023, April 7). Justice Thomas: Advisers said no need to report travel with GOP donor. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/07/clarence-thomas-trips-crow-propublica/

U.S. News & World Report. (2023, April 7). Justice Thomas says he was advised that “personal hospitality” from friends was not reportable. U.S. News & World Report. https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2023-04-07/justice-thomas-says-he-was-advised-that-personal-hospitality-from-friends-was-not-reportable

Kaplan, J., Elliott, J., & Mierjeski, A. (2024, June 7). Justice Clarence Thomas acknowledges he should have disclosed free trips from billionaire donor. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-gift-disclosures-harlan-crow

Related Apologia Cases

Readers interested in this political apologia case may also want to review: