Judicial body won't refer Clarence Thomas to Justice Department over ethics lapses
The head of the Judicial Conference said there is legal uncertainty over whether it has the authority to refer complaints about Supreme Court justices.
A judicial organization that sets national policy for federal courts has rejected a request from two Democratic lawmakers to refer Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to the Justice Department over free travel and gifts from wealthy benefactors that were largely omitted from his financial disclosure forms.
The group, the Judicial Conference, sent identical letters Thursday to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who chairs the Judiciary subcommittee on federal courts, and Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., the ranking member of the Judiciary subcommittee on courts, who asked it in 2023 to refer Thomas to the attorney general for investigation following a ProPublica report on free travel and gifts to Thomas by billionaire Harlan Crow and others.
Judicial Conference Secretary Robert J. Conrad Jr. said Thomas had filed amended financial disclosures "that address several issues identified in your letter" and argued that there is legal uncertainty over whether the Judicial Conference has the authority to refer complaints about Supreme Court justices.
"Because the Judicial Conference does not superintend the Supreme Court and because any effort to grant the Conference such authority would raise serious constitutional questions, one would expect Congress at a minimum to state any such directive clearly. But no such express directive appears in this provision," Conrad said.
He rejected a similar request Thursday from Citizens for Renewing America President Russ Vought, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget, who filed an ethics complaint against Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson over allegations that she failed to disclose details about income from her husband’s medical malpractice consulting.
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