The Clarence Thomas Debacle: Why Principles Matter
“The job is not worth doing for what they pay. The job is not worth doing for the grief. But it is worth doing for the principle.”
These are the words of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in a speech to the Bar Association in 2001. That’s not a typo; a speech he made well over 20 years ago, long before he was embroiled in a growing list of financial scandals and strong evidence that his wife, Ginni, aided in insurrection efforts that culminated in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
A Supreme Court Associate Justice makes an annual salary of just over $285,000 per year. They also get thirty vacation days per year (that’s six Monday-Friday weeks), twenty days (!) of sick leave, and 5 personal days. This does not include the summer “recess” when they are not on the bench but supposedly still at work preparing for the fall cases, considering motions and applications, and analyzing new petitions.
Furthermore, they get the very best medical benefits and, if they serve ten years, they get a pension that is an annual salary equal to their highest annual salary when they worked. (Why aren’t more of them retiring sooner, I have to ask?)
What say you to this, American workers? How many of us — whether it be blue or white collar workers — would love to have those benefits?
In a profile for the Legal Times in the 1980s (before he took the bench at the Supreme Court in 1991), Thomas, who grew up in poverty, said he planned to be rich, and that meant more than just a few hundred thousand dollars per year. (Note: $300,000 in 1985 would equal about $852,000 today; one can easily become a millionaire on that salary.)
I have no problem with an ambitious young person wanting to become rich. But when he accepted a nomination to the Supreme Court, knowing what the salary and lifetime appointment were all about, he took it, even though he could have made far more as a lawyer in the private sector. But that didn’t stop Thomas from pursuing wealth; it just became his side hustle. And to that, I ask Justice Thomas: What are these ‘principles’ you seem to suggest are so important to you?
Mind you, Thomas’s salary didn’t preclude his wife Ginni from making money. As of this year, her reported annual salary is $6 million and she has a net worth of $78 million. Is that still not rich enough for poor Clarence?
As revealed earlier this year, billionaire Harlan Crow has been Thomas’s main benefactor, showering the Thomases with luxury vacations, the purchase of Clarence’s mother’s home (where she continues to live rent-free at age 94), and private school tuition for his grand-nephew. But there are more; many are his pals from the Horatio Alger Society, which Thomas joined shortly after he began serving on the Supreme Court. The Horatio Alger theme is that anyone can achieve the American dream with hard work, pluck, and a little luck. I’m not sure Thomas’s tremendous amount of luck is what Alger had in mind.
Other benefactors going back to the ’80s include Jerry Jones (owner of the Dallas Cowboys), Wayne Huizenga, David Sobel, Dennis Washington, Armstrong Williams, and Anthony Welters, among others, presumably. With these connections, he was able to purchase a home with 5% down, get the gift of a luxury RV, and more vacations and gifts. That’s a lot of sugar daddies!
Because Thomas stopped claiming his gifts about twenty years ago (supposedly on the advice of fellow justices), it has been hard to track any conflicts of interest. I think it’s safe to assume that many of his benefactors have contributed to conservative causes.
And then, earlier this year, Thomas — who used every tool at his disposal to climb the ladder — ruled against affirmative action in college admissions. While some mistakenly believe that affirmative action lets people in based on race alone (and need not be fully qualified), it did allow for race to be a factor among qualified candidates. The rising diversity in all sectors of professional life since then has undeniably been a positive outcome for all Americans. It helped Thomas get into Yale where, in addition to getting his education, he was able to become acquainted with a slew of wealthy and connected people who could help him with his further ascent.
Most folks are thrilled and grateful when a wealthy friend lets them stay in their summer home for a week. Or when a wealthy friend gives them a generous check for a wedding or a graduation or a special birthday. But Thomas has been grabbing whatever he can grab from whomever offers it, apparently without questioning the ethics or conflicts of interest behind the gift. Or should I say grift?
Our lives have been impacted enough by the corruption that occasionally runs through our Legislative and Executive branches of government. If we can’t trust the integrity of our Supreme Court judges, who hold the rule of law and our sacred Constitution in their very hands, we are in big, irreversible trouble.
We cannot let this stand. We need judicial reform now.
