Demand Progress

Clarence Thomas is taking a page out of Donald Trump’s playbook by claiming that the well-documented reports of his corruption scandals are simply “nastiness and lies.”¹

The Supreme Court Justice can’t make his ethics violations — undisclosed, paid-for luxury vacations with right-wing billionaires, a web of conservative dark money benefitting him and his wife, failures to recuse himself from cases where he has clear conflicts of interest (including the Trump immunity case) — disappear with a few defensive words. But Congress can hold Thomas accountable and finally end corruption on the Supreme Court by passing a Supreme Court Ethics Act.

Sign the petition: Tell Congress to pass a SCOTUS ethics act and put an end to Clarence Thomas’ ethics scandals. Restore ethical standards to the Supreme Court now!

There has been a year’s worth of reporting on Thomas’ decades of scandals that has led to an official congressional investigation and Senate subpoenas of his billionaire benefactor Harlan Crow and architect of stacking the Court with right-wing judges, Leonard Leo. It’s all real reporting, no lies and no nastiness.

What Thomas is doing to our judicial system and public confidence in the nation’s highest court is more “nasty” than the investigative journalism uncovering all of his ethics violations.

The latest example of Thomas’ misdeeds is his refusal to recuse himself from the Trump immunity case despite his wife’s participation in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.²

Here’s how the New York Times put it: “Justice Clarence Thomas, who participated in the case despite his wife [Ginni] Thomas’s own vigorous efforts to overturn the election.”³ The conflict of interest is clear, yet Justice Thomas has ignored calls for him to recuse himself from the case.

The Supreme Court is supposed to be fair and independent, but ruling in a case that will directly impact your family doesn’t seem fair nor independent. We need big changes on the Court. We need Congress to pass this bill to finally create a real, binding code of conduct for our federal courts.

Add your name: Pass a Supreme Court ethics act now!

Sources:

1. The Guardian, “Clarence Thomas: Washington is a ‘hideous place’ of ‘nastiness and lies,’” May 11, 2024.
2. The New Yorker, “Legal Scholars Are Shocked By Ginni Thomas’s 'Stop the Steal' Texts,” March 25, 2022.
3. New York Times, "Conservative Justices Take Argument Over Trump’s Immunity in Unexpected Direction,” April 26, 2024.