Justice Clarence Thomas has a long history of accepting expensive gifts, including a long-time friend paying for his 1987 wedding reception: report
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- Justice Clarence Thomas' acceptance of lavish gifts stretches back decades, per a new NYT report.
- These include his 1987 wedding reception, paid for by a friend before he joined the Supreme Court, it said.
- Scrutiny of Thomas has intensified in recent months following revelations of unreported gifts and trips.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted multiple lavish gifts over the years, including the cost of his 1987 wedding reception, a New York Times investigation revealed.
Scrutiny of Thomas has increased since an April 2023 ProPublica report detailed the relationship between the justice and billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow, who bought property from Thomas in an undisclosed deal in 2014.
Crow also paid for private school tuition for a young relative Thomas was raising, and treated Thomas and his wife to vacations on his luxury yacht, neither of which he reported.
In its latest report, the Times detailed lavish gifts, some of which pre-date Thomas' time on the Supreme Court.
In the mid-1980s, when Thomas was chairperson of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a "buddy" paid for a Bahamas vacation for him and an unnamed girlfriend, the ex-girlfriend told the paper.
And another friend, conservative commentator Armstrong Williams, told the paper that he paid for the reception at the wedding of Thomas to his wife, Virginia, in 1987.
The Times' report largely focuses on Thomas' embrace by the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, which funds needs-based scholarships and counts among its membership ultra-wealthy and powerful individuals.
Thomas became a member of the association soon after he joined the Supreme Court in 1991.
Sexual assault allegations strained Thomas' accession to the court. But as he became a member of the Horatio Alger Association, he was treated "like a brother, like he mattered," Williams told the paper. "And, in return, he opened up the Supreme Court."
Through friendships forged with the wealthy members of the nonprofit, Thomas accessed a lifestyle of lavish parties and vacations and VIP tickets to sports events, the paper reported.
And through its link to Thomas, the association gained unique access to the court itself for its ceremonies — a privilege the association touts in its fundraising, the paper said.
Thomas declined to respond to the paper's detailed request for comment.
The Supreme Court has no formalized code of ethics, and since the increased scrutiny on the relationship of Thomas and Crow, commentators have argued the system for prohibiting conflicts of interest is too vague.
Thomas is far from the only Supreme Court Justice to have received expensive gifts in the course of their tenure. Former Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia both disclosed multiple gifted and subsidized trips, while currently serving justices have also taken opulent teaching trips paid for by conservative entities.
But revelations around Thomas have grown in recent months, with a steady flow of reports of undisclosed gifts.
After the LA Times reported on a series of gifts in 2004 — including plane flights, cigars, a silver buckle and a rawhide coat — Thomas stopped making gifts from people he considered friends public.
This was on the advice of "colleagues and others in the judiciary," The New York Times reported.