Senate Judiciary Democrats call on Roberts to investigate Clarence Thomas trips

Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats on Monday called on Chief Justice John Roberts to investigate revelations from ProPublica’s investigation into high-end trips taken by Justice Clarence Thomas at the expense of a Republican megadonor.

In a letter signed by the committee’s 11 Democrats, the lawmakers said they would hold a hearing after ProPublica reported that Thomas took various trips over the years paid for by Harlan Crow, a Dallas-based real estate developer who has donated millions to conservative causes.

“In the coming days, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing regarding the need to restore confidence in the Supreme Court’s ethical standards,” the Democratic lawmakers wrote. “And if the Court does not resolve this issue on its own, the Committee will consider legislation to resolve it. But you do not need to wait for Congress to act to undertake your own investigation into the reported conduct and to ensure that it cannot happen again. We urge you to do so.”

The report detailed how Thomas joined Crow for multiple vacations that included trips on his private jet and 162-foot yacht, with costs estimated in the hundreds of thousands.

“The report describes conduct by a sitting Justice that he did not disclose to the public and that is plainly inconsistent with the ethical standards the American people expect of any person in a position of public trust,” the lawmakers wrote.

Supreme Court justices are required to file annual financial disclosures under federal law, but Thomas in a statement on Friday indicated he “was advised” that the trips did not have to be disclosed because they fell under a personal hospitality exception.

“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,” Thomas said.

The federal judiciary’s policy-making body last month adopted stricter gift reporting requirements that clarified the exception does not apply to gifts at commercial properties and only spans certain gifts from someone with a personal relationship with the justice in a nonbusiness context. Thomas said he would follow the new guidance.

But the Democratic lawmakers in Monday’s letter called for the high court to go further and adopt the binding code of conduct in place for other federal judges. A group of Democratic lawmakers earlier this year reintroduced a bill that would do so.

But Roberts resisted doing so roughly a decade ago in his 2011 year-end report on the judiciary. 

He wrote at the time that the code was a “starting point” but that it did not adequately answer some of the ethical considerations “unique” to the high court, also noting that the justices had never addressed whether Congress had the authority to impose ethical rules on the justices. 

“We submit that the Court has compelling reasons to do so, and urge prompt adoption of the Code of Conduct,” the lawmakers wrote. “While last month’s revision to the Judicial Conference’s guidance on judicial financial disclosures was a modest step in the right direction, further action is needed.”