Corrupt Court Roundup

The American people deserve a Supreme Court that is immune to pressure from billionaire political donors, but recent reporting has shown corruption and ethics scandals have run rampant. As a result, confidence in the Supreme Court is at new lows and the overwhelming majority of Americans are in favor of implementing ethics and transparency reforms for the Supreme Court. 

As the Supreme Court begins its new term, with landmark cases that have the potential to benefit corporate profits and billionaire donors, we must continue to shine a light on all the Supreme Court corruption and push for needed reforms.

All the Supreme Court Corruption

Justice Clarence Thomas

• Thomas repeatedly violates federal law by failing to disclose luxury trips, gifts, and business transactions with billionaire benefactors who had business before the court
  • ProPublica: Clarence Thomas Secretly Accepted Luxury Trips From Major GOP Donor
  • ProPublica: Clarence Thomas’ 38 Vacations: The Other Billionaires Who Have Treated the Supreme Court Justice to Luxury Travel
  • ProPublica: Billionaire Harlan Crow Bought Property from Clarence Thomas. The Justice Didn’t Disclose the Deal 
  • ProPublica: Clarence Thomas Had a Child in Private School. Harlan Crow Paid the Tuition
  • Bloomberg: Clarence Thomas’s Billionaire Friend Did Have Business Before the Supreme Court
  • HuffPost:  Clarence Thomas Said His Billionaire Friend Didn’t Come Before The Court — But His Business Interests Did

• Thomas secretly helps fundraise for Koch dark money network and accepts free luxury travel
  • ProPublica: Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events
    
• Thomas gives access to the Court to his rich friends to enrich himself
  • NYTimes: Where Clarence Thomas Entered an Elite Circle and Opened a Door to the Court
• Thomas refuses to recuse himself in J6 cases even though his wife, Ginni Thomas, was a target of investigations
  • Business Insider: Clarence Thomas was the lone dissent in the Supreme Court’s January order rejecting Trump’s bid to withhold documents from the January 6 panel
  • Rolling Stone: The Supreme Court’s Clarence and Ginni Thomas Scandal Is Unprecedented
  • NPR: Text messages reveal Ginni Thomas urged Mark Meadows to overturning election results

• Ginni Thomas receives huge sums of money from Leonard Leo’s dark money network in their work to capture the judiciary. Justice Thomas fails to disclose his wife’s income and its sources.
  • Politico: What Ginni Thomas and Leonard Leo wrought: How a justice’s wife and a key activist started a movement
  • Washington Post: Judicial activist directed fees to Clarence Thomas’s wife, urged ‘no mention of Ginni’
  • Newsweek: Clarence Thomas Failing to Note Wife Ginni’s $680k Side Income Resurfaces
  • Washington Post: Activist group led by Ginni Thomas received nearly $600,000 in anonymous donations
  • The Hill: Kellyanne Conway defends reported concealed Ginni Thomas payments

• Other Thomas Scandals
  • The New Yorker: The Scandal of Thomas’ New Clerk 
  • New York Times, How Justice Thomas’s ‘Nearly Adopted Daughter’ Became His Law Clerk
  • Jacobin: Influenced by Dark Money, Clarence Thomas Has Reversed His Position on a Landmark Legal Doctrine
  • The Atlantic: A Brief History of Clarence Thomas’ Ethical Entanglements
  • The Guardian: Lawyers with supreme court business paid Clarence Thomas aide via Venmo
  • New York Times: Justice Thomas’s R.V. Loan Was Forgiven, Senate Inquiry Finds

Justice Samuel Alito

• Alito breaks federal ethics laws by failing to disclose luxury trips from billionaires with business before the Court
  • ProPublica: Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court
  • CNN: Alito in the hot seat over trips to Alaska and Rome he accepted from groups and individuals who lobby the Supreme Court

• Alito refuses to recuse in case brought by lawyer who conducted a puff piece interview with Alito in the Wall Street Journal
  • Washington Post: Alito will not recuse in case involving lawyer who interviewed him
  • The Hill, Alito says Congress has ‘no authority’ to regulate Supreme Court

• Alito disregards new ethics rules around recusals
  • Slate: It Took Alito Barely a Month to Violate the Supreme Court’s New Ethics Rules
• Alito disclosed the outcome of decisions before their public
  • NYTimes: Former Anti-Abortion Leader Alleges Another Supreme Court Breach
• Alito’s wife profits big off of oil and gas industry while Alito cripples the EPA
  • The Intercept: Samuel Alito’s Wife Leased Land to an Oil and Gas firm while the Justice fought the EPA

Chief Justice John Roberts

• Roberts’ wife makes millions placing lawyers in DC law firms with business before the Court
  • NYTimes: At the Supreme Court, Ethics Questions Over a Spouse’s Business Ties
  • Forbes: Chief Justice Roberts’ Wife Is Latest Supreme Court Spouse To Spark Ethics Concerns
  • Insider: Jane Roberts, who is married to Chief Justice John Roberts, made $10.3 million in commissions from elite law firms, whistleblower documents show

• Roberts’ wife work with anti-choice groups helped lead to his appointment
  • Insider: Jane Roberts’ anti-abortion advocacy helped her husband, Chief Justice John Roberts, land his spot on the Supreme Court years before Roe v. Wade was overturned

Justice Brett Kavanaugh

• Panel of federal judges finds “serious” ethics allegations against Kavanaugh, but finds that they do not have authority to hold Supreme Court justice accountable
  • NPR: Federal Panel Of Judges Dismisses All 83 Ethics Complaints Against Brett Kavanaugh

Justice Neil Gorsuch

• Gorsuch fails to disclose that head of law firm with business before the purchased his property 9 days after his confirmation
  • Politico: Law Firm Head Bought Gorsuch-Owned Property

• Gorsuch and Justice Sonia Sotomayor fail to recuse themselves in case involving their book publisher
  • CNN: 2 Supreme Court justices did not recuse themselves in cases involving their book publisher

Justice Amy Coney Barrett

• Barrett refuses to recuse herself in case involving dark money group that spent millions on her confirmation
  • Forbes: Amy Coney Barrett Rebuffs Demands To Recuse From Dark Money Case Involving Group That Supported Her Confirmation

• Barrett sells her home to employee of rightwing religious group with business before the Court
  • Newsweek: Amy Coney Barrett Faces Scrutiny Over Real Estate Deal With Religious Group