Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has recently been under scrutiny for taking three undisclosed trips aboard a private jet provided by Republican megadonor Harlan Crow between 2017 and 2021. The details of these trips were revealed through documents obtained by the Senate Judiciary Committee and released on Thursday.
The records show that Thomas traveled aboard Crow’s private jet in May 2017 on a flight from St. Louis, Missouri, to Kalispell, Montana, with a return flight to Dallas two days later. The second trip took place in March 2019, from Washington, D.C., to Savannah, Georgia, and back. The third trip in June 2021 included roundtrip flights between Washington and San Jose, California.
These revelations came to light after the committee authorized a subpoena for Crow in November. In addition to Crow, the panel’s Democrats also voted to issue a subpoena to conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo, who refused to comply with their demand for information. Crow’s office stated in April that he had not received a subpoena from the committee.
The committee highlighted that Thomas did not include the private jet travel in his most recent financial disclosure statement, which was released just the week before. The Supreme Court did not immediately provide a comment on the matter.
Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin expressed concern over the undisclosed trips, stating, “Nearly $4.2 million in gifts and even that wasn’t enough for Justice Thomas, with at least three additional trips the Committee found that he has failed to disclose to date.” Durbin emphasized the need for an enforceable code of conduct for the Supreme Court, as its members continue to overlook ethical obligations.
Crow’s office released a statement saying that they had reached an agreement with the panel to provide information going back seven years in response to Democrats’ requests for lists of travel, gifts, lodging, or other transactions provided to any Supreme Court member. Despite Crow’s reservations about the inquiry, he engaged in negotiations with the committee in good faith to resolve the matter. As part of the agreement, the committee agreed to end its probe with respect to Crow.
The documents also revealed additional travel aboard Crow’s private jet for a trip to Bali, Indonesia, in July 2019, an eight-day “yacht excursion” for that vacation, and private jet travel for a trip to Santa Rosa, California in the same month. While Thomas reported the trips to Indonesia and California in an amendment to his 2019 financial disclosure form, he did not include the flights aboard the private plane or yacht. His lodging information was reportedly “inadvertently omitted” from his original filing.
Durbin pointed out discrepancies in the dates of the Indonesia trip reported by Thomas compared to those listed in the documents provided by Crow. The Judiciary Committee has been investigating ethics issues at the Supreme Court for approximately a year, prompted by reporting from ProPublica detailing Thomas’s trips with Crow, including the Bali vacation that had not been disclosed in his financial reports.
Thomas had previously stated that he did not believe he was required to disclose the travel and vowed to comply with guidelines on personal hospitality issued by the Judicial Conference. His financial disclosure report for 2022 listed flights Thomas took aboard Crow’s private plane and lodging at Crow’s property in the Adirondacks. Thomas also disclosed details about a 2014 real estate transaction with Crow that had been revealed by ProPublica.
Thomas’s relationship with Crow led Senate Democrats to push for the Supreme Court to adopt a formal code of conduct. The Judiciary panel advanced legislation last July that would have mandated the court to establish binding ethics rules. However, the measure has not been brought to a vote on the Senate floor, and an attempt by Durbin to unanimously pass the ethics bill was blocked by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
In November, the Supreme Court unveiled its own code of conduct, but it lacked a mechanism for enforcement, drawing criticism from Democrats who deemed the ethics rules insufficient.
The ongoing investigation into ethical issues at the Supreme Court continues to shed light on the need for transparency and accountability among its members. The revelations surrounding Justice Thomas’s undisclosed trips aboard a private jet provided by a Republican donor underscore the importance of implementing enforceable codes of conduct to uphold the integrity of the highest court in the land.
