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Opinion | 54 Years Ago, a Supreme Court Justice Was Forced to Quit for Behavior Arguably Less Egregious Than Thomas’s [1]
['Adam Cohen']
Date: 2023-04-11
These Democrats called for Fortas to step down, even though President Richard Nixon, a Republican, would appoint his successor, which would help to flip the court from a liberal majority to a conservative one. They made clear that they were more concerned with the court and the country than with their ideology or their party. “The confidence of our citizenry in the federal judiciary must be preserved,” Tydings declared.
With his own party turning against him, Fortas was in danger of being impeached by the Democratic-controlled House. Fortas insisted he had done nothing wrong, but he stepped down, explaining in his resignation letter to Chief Justice Earl Warren that “the welfare and the maximum effectiveness of the court to perform its critical role in our system of government are factors that are paramount to all others.”
Justice Thomas’s conduct has been far more egregious in scale than Fortas’s. ProPublica reported that a single nine-day “island hopping” trip by Justice Thomas and his wife, which included a 162-foot superyacht, could have cost him over $500,000 if he had chartered the private jet he flew on and the yacht himself. Justice Thomas did not report the largess he received on his financial disclosure forms, which appears to violate federal law, according to ethics experts ProPublica spoke to. (Justice Thomas issued a nonapology of the “there is nothing to see here” variety.)
The defenses being made on Justice Thomas’s behalf hardly pass the laugh test. It was just, as Justice Thomas put it, “personal hospitality” among close friends? That would be a nice meal at a friend’s home, not an invitation to travel the world like royalty on a plutocrat’s dime. And about that friendship: ProPublica reports that Justice Thomas’s rich benefactor, the real estate developer Harlan Crow, befriended him after he became a justice. It is hard to believe that if Justice Thomas started voting like Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the friendship or the free island hopping would continue.
ProPublica reported that neither Mr. Crow nor his firm has had a case before the court since Justice Thomas joined it. But Justice Thomas and his conservative allies have been catering to the interests of the ultrawealthy for years, from striking down campaign finance limits to making it harder for workers to unionize. Mr. Crow also serves on the board of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, whose website makes clear that it takes a keen interest in cases before the court.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/11/opinion/clarence-thomas-supreme-court-abe-fortas.html
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