Supreme Court Justice criticized for lavish travel invites

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been criticized in the United States for a report on paid luxury travel. “The highest court in the land should not have the lowest ethical standards,” said Democrat Dick Durbin, chairman of the US Senate Judiciary Committee. The background is a report from the research publication “ProPublica”. Accordingly, Thomas would have accepted luxury travel for years from billionaire Harlan Crow, who is a major donor to conservative projects.

Thomas would not have announced these invitations. “ProPublica” cites as an example a trip to Indonesia in 2019 that Thomas and his wife Ginni spent aboard Crow’s yacht – they were also on his private jet. According to the media, Thomas explained on Friday that his colleagues had told him at the time that such invitations “by close personal friends who have nothing to do with the court” were not the subject of coverage.

The arch-conservative judge had repeatedly caused a stir in recent times. A statement by the lawyer, which he published in the wake of the verdict that overturned the right to abortion in the US, caused a stir last year. He wrote that decisions enshrining the right to contraception, same-sex marriage or same-sex sex should also be reviewed.

According to media reports, after the defeat of Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, his wife Ginni Thomas allegedly made efforts to oppose the outcome of the election. She is considered a loyal Trump supporter. Critics have called on Thomas not to sit on the bench due to bias in Trump-related Supreme Court cases. So far, Thomas has not complied.

“The hospitality we have shown to the Thomases over the years is no different than the hospitality we have shown to our many other dear friends,” said billionaire Crow. He never tried to influence the judge’s decisions.

Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for Thomas to be removed from the judiciary. Alberto Gonzales, attorney general under former Republican President George W. Bush, told CNN he didn’t think the invitations influenced Thomas’s decisions. But he is concerned about the public image of the Supreme Court. (sda/dpa)