CROOKED CLARENCE SITE HIGHLIGHTS JUSTICE THOMAS’ DECADES-LONG HISTORY OF CORRUPTION AND UNETHICAL CONDUCT

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (May 2, 2023) — Today, Stand Up America and Take Back the Court Action Fund launched CrookedClarence.com, which lays out in detail a timeline of Justice Clarence Thomas’ two-decade-long history of corrupt and unethical conduct as a Supreme Court justice. The website launched ahead of today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Supreme Court ethics, to which Chief Justice John Roberts glibly refused an invitation to testify about the latest ethics scandals surrounding the Court’s right-wing justices — namely, Justice Thomas’ history receiving gifts and lavish vacations from billionaire right-wing megadonor Harlan Crow.

“There’s a Clarence Thomas shaped hole in today’s Senate hearing,” said Sarah Lipton-Lubet, president of Take Back the Court Action Fund. “People have a tendency to look at each new headline about Justice Thomas acting unethically in a silo. But each new revelation about the right-wing justices getting wined and dined by megadonors and rubbing elbows with extremists is further proof of just how little they care about the Court’s integrity, and just how partisan the institution has become. Every failure by the justices to follow basic disclosure rules is part of a larger campaign of deceit and dishonesty to the American public. And each time they aren’t held accountable, they’re being shown they can act above the law with impunity. If they refuse to speak before Congress willingly, it’s time for our leaders in the Senate to subpoena them.”

“The fact that there is enough information on just one Supreme Court justice’s misdeeds to fill a website like CrookedClarence.com shows the dire ethical crisis engulfing the Court today. For twenty years, Justice Thomas accepted and hid luxury vacations gifted to him by GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, including multiple trips on private jets and yachts potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. And that’s just one example of his corruption,”saidBrett Edkins, Managing Director of Policy & Political Affairs at Stand Up America.

“It’s unfathomable that Supreme Court justices are the only federal judges in America not bound by a code of ethics. It’s up to the justices to self-police on ethical issues, and they want to keep it that way. As public servants with lifetime tenure, they should want to set an example for the rest of the country. It’s increasingly clear that we simply cannot trust the Supreme Court to hold themselves to even the same ethical standard as lower federal court judges on their own. It’s up to Congress to check the Supreme Court and restore faith in our judicial system by fully investigating Justice Thomas, holding hearings, and passing a code of ethics for Supreme Court justices.”

The website timeline threads together scandals and donor entanglements Justice Thomas has involved himself in since he was confirmed to the Supreme Court in 1991. CrookedClarence.com is now live.

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