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It's Going To Be A Lot Harder For Clarence Thomas To Justify The Most Recent Ethics Scandal

The latest Clarence Thomas ethics scandal.

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Clarence Thomas interview Daily Caller

Justice Clarence Thomas (Screencap via Daily Caller News Foundation)

If there’s ever an actual, enforceable ethics code for the U.S. Supreme Court, we’ll have to thank ProPublica. The good folks there are doing the Lord’s work, revealing the gifts Justice Clarence Thomas has been receiving for pretty much his entire tenure on the high court from GOP megadonor Harlan Crow.

And the timing of this latest reveal? Chef’s kiss. Perfection.

So, quick recap: ProPublica initially released an article detailing the two decades of Justice Thomas receiving travel and other gifts from Crow. A few days later, we got more details of the financial entanglement between the two men as it was revealed Crow bought from Thomas three pieces of property — including one Thomas’s mother lives on — and improved it, all with Thomas’s mother never paying rent.

The right began circling the wagons to protect the lifetime appointment of the reliable vote of Thomas. Thomas said he didn’t have to report the gifts as they fall under the reporting exception for personal hospitality, and “textualists” were happy to support that stance in support of their man. Now that Thomas’s justification for the ethics oversight is on record, we have another report from ProPublica, saying Crow paid for Thomas’s grandnephew — Mark Martin, who Thomas and his wife were raising “as a son” — to attend an elite school (well, actually two: Hidden Lake Academy and Randolph-Macon Academy). Though the exact amount Crow ponied up for Thomas’s kid’s education is unclear, it’s definitely not chump change.

ProPublica interviewed Martin, his former classmates and former staff at both schools. The exact total Crow paid for Martin’s education over the years remains unclear. If he paid for all four years at the two schools, the price tag could have exceeded $150,000, according to public records of tuition rates at the schools.

No, these payments were not previously reported. But don’t worry, another gift of $5,000 for Martin’s education *was* reported. So it’s hard to say he didn’t know he was supposed to be reporting this kind of largesse.

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But my guess is right-wing media will certainly try.

Crow provided a statement about the payments that leaned heavily onto indignation and completely ignored the point of transparency for government officials.

“Harlan Crow has long been passionate about the importance of quality education and giving back to those less fortunate, especially at-risk youth,” the statement said. “It’s disappointing that those with partisan political interests would try to turn helping at-risk youth with tuition assistance into something nefarious or political.” The statement added that Crow and his wife have “supported many young Americans” at a “variety of schools, including his alma mater.” Crow went to Randolph-Macon Academy.

Friend of the Thomases, Mark Paoletta, is already rolling out a justification, saying Martin was not Thomas’s “dependent child” as defined in the disclosure law. Remember, other gifts for Martin’s education *were* reported, and legal ethics experts are already doubtful about the excuse.

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Justices also must report many gifts to their spouses and dependent children. The law’s definition of dependent child is narrow, however, and likely would not apply to Martin since Thomas was his legal guardian, not his parent. The best case for not disclosing Crow’s tuition payments would be to argue the gifts were to Martin, not Thomas, experts said.

But that argument was far-fetched, experts said, because minor children rarely pay their own tuition. Typically, the legal guardian is responsible for the child’s education.

“The most reasonable interpretation of the statute is that this was a gift to Thomas and thus had to be reported. It’s common sense,” said Kathleen Clark, an ethics law expert at Washington University in St. Louis. “It’s all to the financial benefit of Clarence Thomas.”

Of course, as we’ve seen as this ethics scandal has been rolled out, actually holding Thomas accountable for these lapses will prove difficult.

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on

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