House Dems Want Justice Thomas Investigated
A group of Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives has asked the House Judiciary Committee to investigate possible ethics violations by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Thomas' wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, is active in the Tea Party Movement and central in the allegations. Some liberal groups have long raised concerns about Ginni Thomas' political activities.
Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) have signed a letter to House Judiciary Chair Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.) asking for an investigation.
The letter states that Thomas “has failed to accurately disclose information concerning the income and employment status of his wife, as required by law,” and “may have also failed to report gifts from wealthy supporters and inappropriately solicited donations for favored nonprofit organizations.” The allegations stem from a report issued by Common Cause, a liberal political advocacy group.
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In an email to The Christian Post, a Judiciary Committee staffer said the letter has not been delivered to the committee and until then, they are not commenting.
Justice Thomas said the error occurred due to a “misunderstanding of filing instructions.” Some of Ginni Thomas' income that was not originally reported came from Tea Party and conservative organizations.
Democrats and liberals have long been critical of Ginni Thomas' political activism. Some have argued it is inappropriate for the wife of a Supreme Court judge to be active in strongly partisan organizations. Others have argued that Justice Thomas' judicial reasoning is tarnished by his wife's activities.
Some conservatives have countered that Ginni Thomas has a right to engage in whatever interests or political activities she wishes, regardless of her husband's employment.
Some of the Justice Thomas' defenders have also been from the left side of the political spectrum.
The liberal editors of The Washington Post pointed out the hypocrisy of these same groups not criticizing liberal Supreme Court justices that associated with liberal organizations, in a Feb. 20 editorial.
Harvard Law School professor Noah Feldman, who had clerked for the liberal Supreme Court Justice David Souter, wrote a Feb. 12 op-ed for The New York Times excoriating liberal groups that take issue with the associations of conservative justices.
Those attacks are “driven by the imagined ideal of the cloistered monk-justice, innocent of worldly vanities, free of political connections and guided only by the gem-like flame of inward conscience,” Feldman argued. Looking at the history of Supreme Court justices, Feldman concluded this imagined ideal “was not ever thus.”
“Justices should not be forced to live cloistered lives devoid of meaningful exchanges with individuals and outside groups – even those with strongly held beliefs,” The Washington Post editors concluded.
Blumenauer told Politico on Wednesday that so far, 45 lawmakers have signed the letter.
