HOUSE JUDICIARY WILL HEAR FROM THOMAS’ CRONY ABOUT WHY THE COURT DOESN’T HAVE AN ETHICS PROBLEM

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (December 8) — This morning, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing entitled “Undue Influence: Operation Higher Court and Politicking at SCOTUS.” Among the witnesses is Mark Paoletta, longtime confidante and consigliere of Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginni Thomas. In anticipation of the hearing, Take Back the Court Action Fund released the following statement on behalf of its executive director, Sarah Lipton-Lubet:

“We’d like to thank House Judiciary Committee Republicans for inviting a walking, talking embodiment of the Supreme Court’s ethics problem to today’s hearing in the form of Thomas family accomplice Mark Paoletta. He has stiff competition from the likes of Justice Alito — whose blatant collusion sparked this hearing — but no justice is more obviously compromised than Justice Thomas. Let’s be honest: at this point, it’s not a question of whether right-wing special interests are influencing the conservative justices — it’s only a question of who and how. Hopefully today’s hearing is a first step toward Congress reining in the rogue Court.”

Paoletta, who now serves as Ginni Thomas’ attorney, helped guide Justice Thomas’ confirmation to the Court in 1991. He has defended some of the Supreme Court ethics breaches that have received mainstream attention, including Ginni Thomas’ access to a listserv of former and current Thomas clerks.

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