ACS Reacts to Yet More Evidence of Justice Thomas’ Indifference to Ethics

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Nancy Rodriguez, media@acslaw.org

Washington, DC – In its latest reporting about the Supreme Court, ProPublica revealed that Harlan Crow, Republican megadonor, paid the private school tuition of Justice Thomas’ grandnephew, and Justice Thomas failed to disclose the tuition payments on his annual financial disclosure forms. In response to the reporting, American Constitution Society President Russ Feingold released the following statement:

“A Supreme Court justice – one of the most powerful people in the country – should not have a billionaire benefactor. We would think this would be self-evident, but apparently, it’s not. Maybe because the Supreme Court insists on holding its head in the clouds and pretending that not having a binding code of ethics isn’t crushing its credibility with the public it serves. This is just further proof that Congress must act to check our highest court’s brazen indifference to ethics.

To those who would argue that the critique of Justice Thomas’ unethical behavior is the cause of the public’s plummeting confidence in the Court, we would politely suggest that condoning such unethical behavior is a more damning sentence on a public institution than calling for justices to be held to the same ethical standard as every other judge in the country. The solution to ethics violations is not to deny the violations and toss out red herrings, it is to hold public officials accountable and establish a binding code of ethics to deter such violations going forward. The alternative is to leave open the door for more billionaire benefactors and behavior that begs the question whether our highest court is independent and objective.”

###

AMERICAN CONSTITUTION SOCIETY
The American Constitution Society is a 501(c)3 non-profit, non-partisan legal organization. Through a diverse nationwide network of progressive lawyers, law students, judges, scholars, advocates, and many others, our mission is to support and advocate for laws and legal systems that strengthen our democratic legitimacy, uphold the rule of law, and redress the founding failures of our Constitution and enduring inequities in our laws in pursuit of realized equality. For more information, visit us at www.acslaw.org or on Twitter @acslaw.