According to a Seattle Times article
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002136361_scotusgifts31.html
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is cashing in on his position. We're not talking trinkets here, either; tires, a Lincoln Douglass bible, personal checks, a jet trip to the Bohemian Club camp in beautiful northern CA, and a bust of Lincoln. But it's OK, though, because Berkeley law professor John Yoo, of 'torture memo' fame, sez it's OK.
More below the fold....
Hey, isn't this against the law or something? Apparently not for SC appointees:
"
Ethics Act
The Ethics in Government Act of 1989 prohibits all federal employees, including justices, from accepting "anything of value" from a person with official business before them. However, under rules that the federal judicial system adopted to implement that law, judges are free to accept gifts of unlimited value from people without official business before the court.
Representatives for the federal judiciary and the Supreme Court argue that requiring the disclosure of any gifts is sufficient to prevent corruption or the appearance of favoritism.
But in October, an American Bar Association panel called for tightening the rules to forbid judges from taking expensive gifts, free tickets and other valuable items, regardless of who is the donor. "
Just trust us. Now where have I heard that before - was it Scalia on his duck-hunting trip with Cheney?
Here's the part that may make you ill:
"Why would someone do that -- give a gift to Clarence Thomas? Unless they are family members or really close friends, the only reason to give gifts is to influence the judge," said Mark Harrison, a Phoenix lawyer who heads the ABA's Commission on the Model Code of Judicial Conduct. "And we think it is not helpful to have judges accepting gifts for no apparent reason."
Thomas, through a court spokeswoman, declined to comment. But a former clerk to Thomas defended the practice.
"I don't see why it is inappropriate to get gifts from friends," said John Yoo, now a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. "This reflects a bizarre effort to over-ethicize everyday life. If one of these people were to appear before the Supreme Court, Justice Thomas would recuse himself. So I don't see the problem."
Yes, I now see that, in some cases, torture is justified, Professor Yoo.