Harlan Crow and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (George W. Bush Presidential Center, Getty)
Dear Commons Community,
Bruce Maiman, a longtime radio broadcaster, had a guest essay yesterday entitled, “The Clarence Thomas Scandal Is What’s Wrong With Our Democracy.” He reviews the ProPublica investigation that Supreme Court Justice Thomas has regularly taken lavish trips with billionaire and Republican donor, Harlan Crow, and has never disclosed them. He examines the ethical boundaries for people who have political power and influence and concludes:
“People of influence should avoid even the hint of impropriety in their dealings, especially those with the power to make and interpret laws. Isn’t this what the nation is dealing with now with Donald Trump? Have you ever seen the film “American Gangster”? Or “Serpico”? Those are based on true stories about corrupt cops who took drug money to look the other way. When they got caught, and they did, they went to jail.
Bad enough that Ginni Thomas has been deeply involved in conservative advocacy for many years, disturbingly so given who she’s married to. What Clarence Thomas has been doing for the past 20 years is even more brazen: a Supreme Court justice behaving as if he is above the law. And if it isn’t a question of law, how about a question of public trust?
The Supreme Court has maintained that they it does not have a code of conduct because it doesn’t need one. It’s clear now that the honorables have always needed one. One wonders, too, how many fellow justices looked the other way in the face of clear ethical violations.
I’m not even sure we need a rule to prohibit this sort of thing. Any citizen of even pedestrian knowledge can see this is entirely unacceptable. How can the high court have any credibility now? We can’t even call it a high court anymore, can we?
We want to believe that no one is above the law. Does that also hold for Supreme Court justices? What if it isn’t a law, but a question of ethics? Should we also live by a code that says an ethical violation should result in a punishment similar to illegal behavior?
The possibility always troubles us that public officials in service to the electorate and the nation might fall prey to temptation that can compromise their ethics. It’s one of many things that makes us suspicious about government, that makes us mistrust government. If that is an accurate reading of the electorate, then what do we say about people who violate those ethical standards. And what should we do about them?
The ProPublica investigation has given us yet another reason the Supreme Court enjoys little respect anymore and no longer deserves any. As if we needed another reminder that we are at the mercy of a tiny group of people.”
What’s wrong indeed!
Tony
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