How Clarence Thomas 'made it easier' for the super-rich to 'influence the political system'

Throughout his 32 years on the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas has been controversial.

Thomas was a divisive, polarizing figure even in 1991, when he was accused of sexual harassment by attorney Anita Hill not long after being nominated by President George H.W. Bush. And in November 1993 came a disturbing article from the New York Times' Neil A. Lewis, who reported that Thomas had told a law clerk, "The liberals made my life miserable for 43 years, and I'm going to make their lives miserable for 43 years."

In response to that article, Thomas' critics warned that his primary motivation as a Supreme Court justice, according to that clerk, wasn't the rule of law or the U.S. Constitution — it was a thirst for revenge against liberals and progressives he believed had done him wrong.

Thomas, now 74, hasn't grown any less controversial in 2023. A recent series of reports by ProPublica has raised troubling questions about Thomas' relationship with billionaire GOP megadonor Harlan Crow and the ethics of the High Court's only remaining pre-Bill Clinton justice — ethics that The New Republic's Matt Ford addresses in a biting article published on May 9.

"Thanks to investigations by ProPublica and other news organizations over the last month, we now know that the Supreme Court's most senior justice has some really, really good friends in the halls of American power," Ford explains. "Harlan Crow, a GOP megadonor whom Thomas befriended after joining the Court in the early 1990s, surely ranks at the top of the list. He went on luxury vacations around the world with the Thomases at his own expense for decades."

Ford continues, "He paid the $6200 monthly tuition for Thomas' grandnephew at a private boarding school. Crow even bought Thomas' mother's house in 2014 and let her continue to live there for free, saving her tens of thousands of dollars at minimum in rent and property taxes."

But Ford stresses that Thomas' "lucrative friendships" don't end with Crow. Another is The Federalist Society's Leonard Leo, who paid the justice's wife, far-right MAGA activist Ginni Thomas, around $100,000 for consulting work with the Judicial Education Project.

"Throughout his tenure," Ford notes, "(Justice Thomas) has consistently voted to make it easier for wealthy Americans to influence the political system. His opposition to any campaign-finance contribution limits is already well-known. Less appreciated is Thomas' consistent belief that disclosure requirements, especially in the political sphere, generally violate what he describes as a 1st Amendment right to anonymously participate in politics."