Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has acquitted himself 54 times since 1993, including 17 times, to avoid the potential perception of a conflict of interest created by his son, according to documents collected by Fix The Court group.
Thomas is currently being criticized for not leaving charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021 uprising. Text message From his wife Virginia (Ginny) Thomas, to then White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows , he is actively involved in efforts to reverse the 2020 election results.
Initially, Meadows voluntarily leaked messages to a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Subsequently, on December 7, 2021, he terminated his collaboration with the Committee and requested executive privileges to prevent further disclosure.
The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 against the claims of former President Donald Trump and his former aides, including Meadows executive privileges. Thomas To give the only vote of dissent If. Now, it is clear that the information under consideration could provide additional evidence to support her husband’s involvement in a conspiracy to reverse the 2020 election results.
Thomas’s previous avoidance shows that he did not ignore the rules that apply to federal judges when they should avoid attending a case.
There are many reasons why judges avoid trial. The most common is the initial involvement in the case as a judge or pre-employment with the person involved in the case. Judges also aim to avoid cases where they are a nominated party.
Since 1993, Thomas has acquitted himself at least 19 times in 18 different cases, both because he was named on a petition before being considered a judge in the Court of Appeals, and because his former employer is named as a party.
Judges are also required to refrain from cases where their “prejudices can be reasonably questioned”, when they have “personal prejudice or prejudice against a party” or when “[i]The judge knows the interest, which can significantly affect the outcome of the case ”.
However, there is no mechanism that obligates judges to withdraw cases.
In 1995, Thomas avoided several rounds of the U.S. lawsuit against Virginia, protesting the Virginia Military Institute’s policy of accepting only men. At the time, Thomas’s son was studying at the institute.
Thomas also handled six Wachovia Bank lawsuits from 2004 to 2007 because his son worked at Wachovia Securities.
“Vachovia’s cases are very interesting cases,” said Gabe Roth, CEO of Fix The Court, “because it seeks the interest of a family member. It’s a guide to Court avoidance. Supreme ”.
But Thomas never mentioned a case where there could have been a conflict of interest with his wife. The problem has emerged over the past decade as his career as a conservative political activist has crossed paths with the cases he handles.
In 2009, Ginny Thomas launched the Tea Party, a nonprofit organization called Liberty Central, to help defeat President Barack Obama’s legislative breakthrough, the Affordable Care Act. He raised $ 550,000 from unknown donors to fund it. . This prompted the nonprofit Common Cause to call Clarence Thomas to remove Citizens United v. In the case of the Federal Electoral Commission, which violates corporate political spending. Or not.
Further investigation of the Common Cause Revealed That Clarence Thomas did not disclose the $ 686,589 salary his wife received from the Conservative Heritage Foundation, a major opponent of Obama’s health law, in 2003-2007.
Clarence Thomas Includes seven pages of revised financial information Correct information on her husband’s 20-year salary from conservative political groups, including the Heritage Foundation and Hillsdale College. He said he was confused about the forms and made the deletion “accidental”.
Not everyone has their own reason for face value.
“It is foolish to believe that Thomas of Justice did not know how to complete the basic disclosure form,” the representative said. Louise Slaughter (DNY) wrote a letter to 19 other Democrats who attended a U.S. court conference recommending that the Justice Department investigate criminal matters. But no further action was taken.
At least 74 Democrats have asked Thomas to stay away from lawsuits questioning the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act because his wife worked to defeat the law and for his former work organizations supporting lawsuits to repeal- the law is valid. In the end, he did not give up.
While there are arguments for and against Thomas ’avoidance of health care cases, Roth said there were oddities in the Jan. 6 cases, particularly those related to the disclosure of Trump White House documents. .
Ginny Thomas had an ideological interest in the consequences of the accessible assistance cases, but had a personal interest in self-defense in the Jan. 6 cases. When her husband refused to submit White House documents in committee on Jan. 6, he voted to protect him from legal investigation.
“We didn’t know everything was going to happen,” Roth said. “We don’t know how much he’s involved in this effort.”
On Jan. 6, the committee invited Ginny Thomas to testify. Meanwhile, 24 Democrats, including House Judicial Commission Chair Jerold Nadler (NY) and several members of the Senate Judiciary Commission The letter was signed Clarence to Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts, who asked Thomas to provide a written explanation for not withdrawing from the case on Jan. 6. They also demanded that he be released from any future charges related to the attack on Jan. 6 and that Roberts commit to drafting a “mandatory code of conduct” for the court before April 28.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said this in a speech to the Democratic Group in Parliament Noticed“It is up to individual justice to decide whether to prevent the husband from participating in the coup.
Correction: The previous version of this article incorrectly indicated the number of Democrats who signed the letter to Thomas and Roberts.
Source: Huffpost
