Approximately eighteen hours ago as of this writing, nonprofit ProPublica published a report that for the past two decades, sitting Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas has gone on luxury vacations that were gifted to him by Harlan Crow, a billionaire and known Republican donor.
As per the article, Thomas broke a centuries long code of ethics that justices have followed which includes that they do not accept gifts(which can be outside influence). On top of that, a law passed in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal that essentially requires officials to disclose gifts, as quoted from experts interviewed for the report. However, Thomas never reported any of these and the public was only able to know thanks to investigative journalism from ProPublica.
As a result of this report, Thomas received backlash from prominent politicians. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called this a “cartoonish” form of corruption. She asserted that this was “beyond party of partisanship” and directly called for his impeachment. Dick Durbin, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee said that what Clarence did is “simply inconsistent with ethical standards the American people expect” and such a standard is expected of every public servant, including Supreme Court justices.
How Can We Begin to Hold Justices Accountable?
While Thomas may be the most egregious example of corruption among the ranks of the Supreme Court, he is simply not the first and will definitely not be the last. While impeachment exists as a process that can hold such officials accountable, it is seldomly used and is hard to pass due to increasing partisanship and the length of the process itself. As a result, what should be done is holding them accountable the only other way that they can be held accountable: the people.
Elections for justices of a high court are not a foreign idea. In fact, many states already have such elections in place. The residents of the state vote for the justices of the state supreme court, and they can vote in a nonpartisan manner or partisan manner as portrayed in the map above. So why not extend this to the highest court in the country?
We already have the infrastructure for national elections as we vote for the President and members of the national houses. Adding this as an additional national election would not take much national resources. On top of that, it would be more beneficial for justices to be open on their positions on political issues because it would let the people know how they would generally vote in the court. So it, in reality, has more than the benefit of accountability and is an easy change that can be made.
Thanks for reading another edition of a Discussion on Political Issues, and I’ll see you next time!
This is a great issue you touched on! I did not realize how protected justices are in their jobs and I think that you addressed it properly. I like how you structured the blog by defining the problem all the way to its solution. I also like how the information was displayed and conveyed because it made the blog a lot more readable and engaging.
As someone who doesn’t keep up with the news cycle, this news is shocking and isn’t being talked enough on social media platforms. Clarence Thomas wasn’t ever really seen a favorable light, and this scandal only makes his legacy worse. I also agree that there should be a voting system for Supreme Court Justices so that we can vote in justices we deem fair and capable. Additionally, the lifelong Supreme Court service rule should definitely be reduced as well so that their corruption doesn’t develop and worsen given their extensive platform.
Corruption is so ingrained into our legal systems that Clarence Thomas accepting unreported gifts does not surprise me. This is a huge problem, and something must be done. I think that having stricter punishments for breaking the rules would also help to keep Supreme Court justices and other politicians accountable.