The Senate Judiciary Committee has given the right-wing benefactors of Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito plenty of opportunity to tell their side of the story when it comes to the lavish gifts and trips the backers have supplied. But those wealthy benefactors—Leonard Leo, Harlan Crow, and Robin Arkley II—have refused to cooperate. So they’re getting subpoenaed.
Sens. Dick Durbin, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sheldon Whitehouse, chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights, announced their intent to subpoena the three Monday, writing, “Due to Crow, Leo, and Arkley’s intransigence, the Committee is now forced to seek compulsory process to obtain the information they hold.” The vote will be held as soon as Nov. 9, the leaders told The Washington Post.
Durbin told Politico he believes that Judiciary Committee subpoenas could reveal more information about the connections between these Republican megadonors and the conservative justices. “I’m sorry to say, I think there's a lot more there,” he said. His isn’t the only committee delving into the finances and ethics of the justices. The Senate Finance Committee has an ongoing investigation into the largesse Thomas has received from multiple donors—or “friends,” as they insist on calling themselves.
Durbin is confident he will have the votes of all of the Democrats on the panel to approve the subpoenas now that newly appointed California Sen. Laphonza Butler is on the panel. The long illness and death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein meant that the committee was in a stalemate with Republicans for much of this year. Democrats have the majority again, and they plan to use it.
Leonard Leo has become a household name (in political houses, anyway) as the architect of the far right’s project aiming to control the federal judiciary from district courts all the way up to the Supreme Court. He’s been greasing the skids for billionaires to have access to the justices. That includes finding rich people like Arkley, who owned the fancy remote fishing lodge in Alaska where Alito was wined and dined by hedge fund manager and Republican megadonor Paul Singer.
“Leo’s and Arkley’s responses to the Committee’s initial July 11, 2023, requests were blanket refusals to comply,” the press release from the committee announcing the subpoenas said. “Neither individual engaged in any private discussions with the Committee.”
Crow is almost as well known as Leo for the reports that have trickled out about the huge amount of money he has lavished on Thomas in the form of luxury yacht trips, private school tuition for Thomas’ ward, and real estate deals that have benefited Thomas and his family. The committee also notes that he’s “been hosting Justice Thomas at the private, all-male club Bohemian Grove over the last 25 years,” but that the Koch brothers, “architects of one of the largest, most influential political apparatuses in recent history,” have also been hosted by Crow at these events with Thomas.
The investigations the committee has been conducting into the justices’ conduct and their ties to these millionaires and billionaires are in support of legislation the Democrats have introduced to impose ethics reforms on the high court. As of now, the Supreme Court is exempt from the code of conduct the remainder of the judiciary has to follow. The justices are supposed to be above the need for a code of conduct, so incorruptible and principled that they can be trusted to police themselves. That’s clearly not working.
Even two of Donald Trump’s conservative appointees to the court, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh, have acknowledged that the court needs to do something about the glaring ethics problem they’ve got on their hands. It could be that these two feel particularly vulnerable to criticism given they have that big Trump asterisk by their names already, but neither has been rushing to vindicate their colleagues beyond vague statements like Barrett’s, saying that the “nine justices are very committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct.”
If that’s true, then Chief Justice John Roberts could take care of this without Congress, as Durbin has repeatedly pointed out. “The Chief Justice could fix this problem today and adopt a binding code of conduct,” the senators said Monday. “As long as he refuses to act, the Judiciary Committee will.”
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