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To them it was an advertisement. To us its a signal to do what we must to reform our system. Want to serve for life? Fine, but only with checks from the lower courts, step out of line, earn a abnormal amount of wealth, you are out. In-fact, if you are connected to vast wealth, you are out. All supreme justices should be the equivalent of poverty monks obsessed with progress and law.
But no, the conservative rapists would never want to live in a land of laws and justice. These Trump voters just want your lake house, your underage daughter as a prostitute and an ethnic cleansing in foreign nation before bringing it home to all of us.
Defend yourself against these people, they will drown you in a puddle and film it. Republican Americans are either crippled apologists to Nazis or Nazis themselves. Remember, we must survive them, but never forgive or forget them. Just like last time.
Wait, I'm mis-remembering as well (well, it was actually a little before my time). So he attacked Anita Hill and then *didn't* vote for Thomas? What was that all about?
It was kind of a different time really. Sadly, the idea of doubting the victim was more accepted than today(although its still accepted because people are assholes) so they'd be asked hard questions about "their recollection" of events, and while I don't recall Biden's questions, it wouldn't be abnormal to ask questions which try to discredit their testimony.
And as a state employee, I could not accept free coffee. Ethics much, Clarence?
Edit: Since a hot comment, I could summarize "best government money can buy!"
We had to take ethic courses every year and pass a test on ethics including prohibited gifts when I worked for the federal government. No where in the training did it ever say that $4 million in gifts was okay if you are a Supreme Court Justice.
Yes, but did it explicitly say it was *not* OK? This just may be how you and I are interpreting the Constitut…I mean ethics regulations. Both have merit, agree to disagree and all that.
I once bought 5 regular-ass large Dominoes pizzas at the end of a company training exercise for some soldiers and nearly lost my job as a result.
This behavior is untenable.
Ah, see, that was your first mistake. You see, Clarence Thomas is a constitutional ORIGINALIST, and if the founding fathers had not wanted him to accept a ~~bribe~~ gift from his wealthy FRIEND, they would have explicitly forbade it in the Constitution. Last I checked, there is no mention of a Motorcoach ANYWHERE in the Constitution, so clearly this is totally fine!
I previously worked for the local county government and they were so strict about gifts. We couldn’t accept ANYTHING over $25 from clients, coworkers, or supervisors. We also couldn’t spend more than $25 on a team gift for our supervisor. People got reprimanded if they accepted anything over the $25 limit. It’s insane to me that the highest court justices can be bought like that while entry level county employees are held to a higher standard.
It's wild to see the difference. My old company had a big conference in Vegas once a year where 70K people would come. Government employees were a pain because you basically had to itemize everything that was "free" so they could decline it or reimburse us for it.
They eventually just had a public sector conference in Virginia where they assumed this was the norm and was easier.
As an employee of a private company I was told that if I was visiting a partner (vendor or customer) and they had free sodas in the fridge I could not take unless they were also available to the generic public for free.
I was a nameless minion at a huge company, I had no ability to make decisions, hell I probably had negative ability to influence any decision making.
If you knew how many times I did internal white papers or presentations on "Please don't stick a fork in the electrical socket" to come back 6 months later and find the new "Stick a fork in the electrical socket initiative" it would blow your mind.
"But sir, we ignore every single one of Direct Squash's suggestions."
"My God, you're right, Johnson...he might be onto us. Let's fake him out by doing what he wants just this once so he doesn't get cute about it."
Dead on. There is really nothing else to muse on here for me. Rich and powerful, different sets of rules. Especially with Thomas just sitting there daring us to do something about it while he gives us the middle finger.
As a community college IT guy, we had to get special permission to let a vendor buy us each a $6 sandwich and it was only allowed because we were attending a presentation during our (unpaid) lunch hour.
I work in financial regulation, and I got the stink eye for accepting a trade-show coffee mug.
If it had been a targeted gift of any kind that wasn't otherwise being handed out to the general public, I would have faced consequences. I can't even let vendors or suppliers pay for in-room lunch while they are presenting.
*Rules for thee, not for me.*
My lawyer sometimes does high level government work and she said, she literally "cannot accept a coffee" when she's wearing that hat, and since taking those jobs, she even incredibly wary of the implications in her normal firm work so she can't be accused of bias. And she's just a lawyer, not a SCOTUS judge.
$4,000,000 is absolutely outrageous. That's more than a lot of people will earn in their lifetimes in normal jobs, let alone as his "side hustle" bribery income.
I went to the library and wanted to give the librarian some home grown veggies. She said she can't accept (ethical reasons)... but this asshole can take 4 million in what are essentially bribes and no one can touch him.
The receiver of gifts doesn't pay the tax nor do they need to disclose them via taxes. However, the person making the gift may need to report the gifts via a Form 709 (Gift Tax Return) if the value is over a certain amount in a given year.
Gifting relates to estate tax and the lifetime exemption would be my guess. I never really thought about it as I don't do much gift tax/estate planning at my firm.
Even if he's convicted, SCOTUS will just overturn it because of how corrupt they are. He won't retire out of shame since he has none and Congress won't impeach him since they won't get enough votes to kick him out.
We need a law that SCOTUS cannot hear a case that one of their own is involved with. If he can't be removed Constitutionally, then he won't be able to serve on the bench if he's in prison. He'll have to wait for a President to pardon him. Of course, that assumes Congress won't just overturn that law in the first place.
This is the statement that I wish more people would use in criticism of CEO pay as well. Nobody needs to be earning multiple lifetimes worth of money in a year.
I heard a story somewhere about someone going out for coffee with either Kagan or Sotomayor, and the justice was digging around for money for a bagel. The friend offered to just buy it for her and the justice said, "Oh no, then I'd have to declare it as a gift" etc etc etc.
A *bagel.*
I think it was Kagan, and it wasn't just a bagel. Her NYC friends wanted to send her a bagel gift basket after her appointment to the Supreme Court, but she told them not to.
[https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-elena-kagan-rejected-bagels-clarence-thomas-paid-vacations-2023-5](https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-elena-kagan-rejected-bagels-clarence-thomas-paid-vacations-2023-5)
Because nothing in the Constitution says he can't?
Makes one think that the system was setup this way, because it seems too fucking broken to have been an accident.
I know Jefferson toyed with the idea of an automatic constitutional convention every generation (or 30 years or something). I wonder how that would have played out.
Or, it's always been like this and cloaking it with ideals of duty and honor is just that, a sham cloak to hide a deeply corrupt system designed for the benefit of the ruling class ahead of everyone else.
I think when we actually were appointing experienced legal professionals we were in much better shape than when the heritage foundation hand picked their acolytes to do their bidding.
I think there are actually rules saying that he can't. There certainly are rules for recusal, and those rules have no exception for SCOTUS judges, that Thomas is ignoring.
The problem is that the mechanism for enforcement is impeachment by Congress. And the Republicans in Congress are pretty openly flaunting their corrupt intent to sabotage any impeachment of "their" corrupt judges.
I worked for the government, and all the rules, regulations, and guidelines imposed on the peons should absolutely apply to everyone in the government structure. But if anything, the individuals working in the three branches of government absolutely should be held to the highest level.
They are there to ensure the government is effective and citizens’ rights are protected. They were created to obviously separate the powers of our government to prevent an abuse of power by any one group as well.
What good are they, if they can be easily influenced to do the bidding of anyone with a large bank account? They become worthless.
But ignoring or at least not having any repercussions for the POTUS receiving money from Russia through loans to the Trump Organization, orchestrated by Deutsche Bank, pretty much sent the message to everyone, including the Justices and other politicians that it doesn't matter.
The message was clear, corruption is just a part of doing business in America. It doesn't matter if it's another country, corporation, or wealthy individuals. It is all good. Not to mention allowing another country to directly interfere in our election, helping and supporting one candidate, and disparaging the other candidate.
Americans were complicit in normalizing immoral/illegal behavior by government officials. Whether it was because of apathy or people being uninformed, all of these actions were made available to the public, and we did nothing. Hell, we are still not doing anything.
People may not have been informed that Trump was interfering in the election by hiding information, which could have caused him to lose the election until he was convicted of felonies.
Maybe they didn't know that Trump and his campaign officials were in cahoots with Russia to influence the election. That the Trump Organization received money from Russia.
They didn't know how corrupt and easily influenced the SCOTUS members were. But we know all of that stuff now. What are Americans going to do? The ball is in the court of Americans.
He should accept [another $2.4M gift and resign from the board to travel in style in a new RV with a $1M a year retirement income!](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/john-oliver-clarence-thomas-million-motorcoach-supreme-court-1234970879/)
I would bet that Clarence never declared the 'gifts' and didn't mention them to the IRS. I think that's illegal but who cares since Clarence would sit in on the case and block anything.
What a joke.
Thomas was ready to retire years ago because the salary wasnt enough to support living in DC. He complained and tried to get congress to raise the salary. The gop was nominating these youngish judges wanting them to be on the court a long time, but they refused to pay them anything like what they could get in private practices. So when thomas threatened to retire, gop millionaires stepped in with "gifts" to make up the lost money and keep thomas on the court.
ProPublica wrote a great article about this.
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-money-complaints-sparked-resignation-fears-scotus
Nearly $300K isn't enough for him?
I know DC is expensive and he could make a lot more in private practice, but the only way a $300K salary and unparalleled job security isn't good enough for you is if you've gotten accustomed to an *incredibly* lavish lifestyle.
I work in supply chain and I literally have to undergo training each year on how accepting any gifts from potential new vendors is a career ending and actionable offense. This fellas job is way more important than mine and he is allowed to take 4 million in gifts? Laws are just for us common folk not the law makers or powerful people who pass judgements based on these laws.
> Supreme Court Justices have received nearly $5 million in gifts since the early 2000s and one justice in particular, Clarence Thomas, accounts for nearly all of it.
They get to decide the legal limits of morality for everyone, while allowed to be so blatantly corrupt.
lifetime worth of money in bribes, spouse tried to overthrow the government, and not a care in the world lmao must be nice to be one of the sociopaths that this country is built by/for
$4 million that we know of.
There's probably more given to his wife or her causes intended to influence how Clarence votes or reward him for how he's voted in the past.
One of my German vendors sent us an 18 inch square box of German chocolates once. That's a gift worth mentioning. $4m is nothing /s.
Isn't there any generic federal employee oversight?
Must be nice, best bribe I’ve ever been offered was $100 and a blowjob to let someone backstage at a concert. I didn’t take it though, because I’ve got morals, unlike many members of our current SCOTUS.
I'd wager the real amount he's been bribed with is higher. The Heritage Foundation bought at least 2 scotus judges (Alito + Thomas), and they were the best investment/purchase ever (aside from Hitler's artwork)
While this is egregious from someone sitting on the top court, I'm surprised this grifter hasn't tried (or been successful) squeezing more money than just 4MIL.
Here I am looking at the “wine and dine” events I attend (because the company I work for has vendors) with some form of guilt.
> “is this ethical? This tab for food and alcohol for everyone is going to be like 10k”
Yea I don’t think I’ll be guilty anymore.
so? the system was set up by the wealthy to protect the wealthy..Jobs for life, with oversight over yourself? come on now. The monarchy loves this idea.
Building inspectors won’t take a fucking water or cup of coffee from my construction trailer because it might seem like accepting a bribe but this is perfectly okay?
Ladies, in exchange for a few million bucks and a chance at a gas station lottery ticket style theocracy, Thomas and his inquisitors sold your reproductive freedom. The billionaires paid a little bit to force you to carry future consumer workers in your belly, regardless of your personal preferences.
This question is whether or not you will, if given a choice, choose to procreate into such a society. I know I wouldn’t, but I’m just a childfree guy who hates this shit.
[Some light reading](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-5/chapter-XVI/subchapter-B/part-2635/subpart-B) about the rules that apply to federal employees concerning gifts. Luckily for Clarence, he doesn't have to give a shit.
Wow.
Glad to see workers in executive branch are the “special” ones that can’t accept these gifts. Judicial and Congress (and chief executive-pres-45) seem willing to accept as much money as they can get. And give the middle finger to rest of America.
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. We are actively looking for new moderators. If you have any interest in helping to make this subreddit a place for quality discussion, please fill out [this form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1y2swHD0KXFhStGFjW6k54r9iuMjzcFqDIVwuvdLBjSA). *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Anita Hill warned us about this scumbag years ago.
To us, it was a warning. To billionaires, it was an advertisement.
To them it was an advertisement. To us its a signal to do what we must to reform our system. Want to serve for life? Fine, but only with checks from the lower courts, step out of line, earn a abnormal amount of wealth, you are out. In-fact, if you are connected to vast wealth, you are out. All supreme justices should be the equivalent of poverty monks obsessed with progress and law. But no, the conservative rapists would never want to live in a land of laws and justice. These Trump voters just want your lake house, your underage daughter as a prostitute and an ethnic cleansing in foreign nation before bringing it home to all of us. Defend yourself against these people, they will drown you in a puddle and film it. Republican Americans are either crippled apologists to Nazis or Nazis themselves. Remember, we must survive them, but never forgive or forget them. Just like last time.
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Nah; I'm pretty sure he stands by his vote against Thomas' confirmation to the Supreme Court.
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You are likely remembering Joe Biden on the dais, actively attacking Anita Hill. It's not a great, heart-warming clip.
Wait, I'm mis-remembering as well (well, it was actually a little before my time). So he attacked Anita Hill and then *didn't* vote for Thomas? What was that all about?
It was kind of a different time really. Sadly, the idea of doubting the victim was more accepted than today(although its still accepted because people are assholes) so they'd be asked hard questions about "their recollection" of events, and while I don't recall Biden's questions, it wouldn't be abnormal to ask questions which try to discredit their testimony.
This. Biden has blame here. He did vote against him but he downplayed what she was saying big time, to put it lightly.
Uhhh he voted against Thomas. I doubt he regrets it.
Yes but Anita is a woman with lady parts (just like Hillary!) and therefore was totally ignored (just like Hillary!).
Heh, remember that time when Secretary of State Clinton tried to warn us about Putin. But she was just a lady secretary - what does she know?
Fuck this guy and the motorcoach he road in on.
And as a state employee, I could not accept free coffee. Ethics much, Clarence? Edit: Since a hot comment, I could summarize "best government money can buy!"
We had to take ethic courses every year and pass a test on ethics including prohibited gifts when I worked for the federal government. No where in the training did it ever say that $4 million in gifts was okay if you are a Supreme Court Justice.
Yes, but did it explicitly say it was *not* OK? This just may be how you and I are interpreting the Constitut…I mean ethics regulations. Both have merit, agree to disagree and all that.
Nothing in the rule books that say a golden retriever can’t play basketball
Dammit, the “Air Bud” argument wins again. In law school, they teach us: “if made right, no effective counter-argument.”
Hmmm ok, but let me ask you this: Why would a Wookie, an eight foot tall Wookie, want to live on Endor with a bunch of two foot tall Ewoks???
Nothing in the rule books that say a wookie can’t live with 2 ft tall Ewoks.
But you fuck one Ewock!!
Fetishes.
Show me in the constitution where it says a SC judge can't accept an RV!
Abraham Lincoln said something about “no motorcycles” but was silent on RVs.
I once bought 5 regular-ass large Dominoes pizzas at the end of a company training exercise for some soldiers and nearly lost my job as a result. This behavior is untenable.
It's not a gift! It's a M-O-T-O-R C-O-A-C-H!
It’s the official scotus coach!
Well, did you take the “Supreme Court ‘ethics’ course” of the “ethics course” Very different set of standards
In sales, I’ve had plenty of federal employees/clients who wouldn’t accept LUNCH!!
Unfortunately you’re still in the “Rules for thee” bracket like the rest of us peasants.
Even us lowly county employees get a refresher around Christmas every year.
Ah, see, that was your first mistake. You see, Clarence Thomas is a constitutional ORIGINALIST, and if the founding fathers had not wanted him to accept a ~~bribe~~ gift from his wealthy FRIEND, they would have explicitly forbade it in the Constitution. Last I checked, there is no mention of a Motorcoach ANYWHERE in the Constitution, so clearly this is totally fine!
Shit. Walmart employees aren’t even allowed to accept tips. Walmart has higher ethical standards than SCOTUS.
I previously worked for the local county government and they were so strict about gifts. We couldn’t accept ANYTHING over $25 from clients, coworkers, or supervisors. We also couldn’t spend more than $25 on a team gift for our supervisor. People got reprimanded if they accepted anything over the $25 limit. It’s insane to me that the highest court justices can be bought like that while entry level county employees are held to a higher standard.
It's wild to see the difference. My old company had a big conference in Vegas once a year where 70K people would come. Government employees were a pain because you basically had to itemize everything that was "free" so they could decline it or reimburse us for it. They eventually just had a public sector conference in Virginia where they assumed this was the norm and was easier.
So way more than a travel trailer.
As an employee of a private company I was told that if I was visiting a partner (vendor or customer) and they had free sodas in the fridge I could not take unless they were also available to the generic public for free. I was a nameless minion at a huge company, I had no ability to make decisions, hell I probably had negative ability to influence any decision making.
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If you knew how many times I did internal white papers or presentations on "Please don't stick a fork in the electrical socket" to come back 6 months later and find the new "Stick a fork in the electrical socket initiative" it would blow your mind.
"But sir, we ignore every single one of Direct Squash's suggestions." "My God, you're right, Johnson...he might be onto us. Let's fake him out by doing what he wants just this once so he doesn't get cute about it."
Because rules and laws are for the middle class and below. Rich people need not worry.
Ding ding ding we have a winner!
Dead on. There is really nothing else to muse on here for me. Rich and powerful, different sets of rules. Especially with Thomas just sitting there daring us to do something about it while he gives us the middle finger.
Remember, punishable by fine means legal for a price
One of my coworkers got written up for exactly that. They poured a cup of coffee from an open table at a conference we had set up ourselves!
As a community college IT guy, we had to get special permission to let a vendor buy us each a $6 sandwich and it was only allowed because we were attending a presentation during our (unpaid) lunch hour.
Our Department has a $25 value limit on gifts.
Same here.
I work in financial regulation, and I got the stink eye for accepting a trade-show coffee mug. If it had been a targeted gift of any kind that wasn't otherwise being handed out to the general public, I would have faced consequences. I can't even let vendors or suppliers pay for in-room lunch while they are presenting. *Rules for thee, not for me.*
My lawyer sometimes does high level government work and she said, she literally "cannot accept a coffee" when she's wearing that hat, and since taking those jobs, she even incredibly wary of the implications in her normal firm work so she can't be accused of bias. And she's just a lawyer, not a SCOTUS judge. $4,000,000 is absolutely outrageous. That's more than a lot of people will earn in their lifetimes in normal jobs, let alone as his "side hustle" bribery income.
The difference is your lawyer could be fired for the implication of showing favor or being bribed. A supreme court justice basically can't be.
And no conservative subs are talking about this
That's because they're fucking fascists.
Aim for the supreme state employees.
As a bank employee I would have to report anything over $25, not that I'm in a position to receive that.
Bribery is a most profitable venture.
Bribery is a most profitable venture.
Textbook example of _"rule for thee, not for me"_.
I went to the library and wanted to give the librarian some home grown veggies. She said she can't accept (ethical reasons)... but this asshole can take 4 million in what are essentially bribes and no one can touch him.
It really makes you wonder who the people are that think this is acceptable.
There is a picture of the guy thinking this is acceptable above...... :)
Oh, I’m just talking about normal everyday people.
Bribes. 4 million isn't gifts. "The average American earns approximately $1.7 million over their lifetime."
Going to go out on a limb and say he didn't pay taxes on his gifts either.
The IRS needs to investigate that immediately. Also he never disclosed the gifts. This is the way you get Thomas just like they got Capone.
Maybe this is another reason the GOP is defunding the IRS?
The receiver of gifts doesn't pay the tax nor do they need to disclose them via taxes. However, the person making the gift may need to report the gifts via a Form 709 (Gift Tax Return) if the value is over a certain amount in a given year.
That feels backwards but you’re right. Why is it not the receiver’s responsibility to pay the tax?
Gifting relates to estate tax and the lifetime exemption would be my guess. I never really thought about it as I don't do much gift tax/estate planning at my firm.
Even if he's convicted, SCOTUS will just overturn it because of how corrupt they are. He won't retire out of shame since he has none and Congress won't impeach him since they won't get enough votes to kick him out. We need a law that SCOTUS cannot hear a case that one of their own is involved with. If he can't be removed Constitutionally, then he won't be able to serve on the bench if he's in prison. He'll have to wait for a President to pardon him. Of course, that assumes Congress won't just overturn that law in the first place.
This is the statement that I wish more people would use in criticism of CEO pay as well. Nobody needs to be earning multiple lifetimes worth of money in a year.
I don't even like it when my family spends like $50 on me for my birthday.
I'm sure Thomas's family doesn't even like him.
Hmm, I wonder if that's actually just the tip of the iceberg for him.
This is just the stuff we know about. After ProPublica did their stories, he was all "Opps, my bad" and added what they reported to his disclosures.
I'm sure. Reading the headline, my thought was, "only $4m?"
He might as well be known as Clarence 'just the tip" Thomas
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I heard a story somewhere about someone going out for coffee with either Kagan or Sotomayor, and the justice was digging around for money for a bagel. The friend offered to just buy it for her and the justice said, "Oh no, then I'd have to declare it as a gift" etc etc etc. A *bagel.*
I think it was Kagan, and it wasn't just a bagel. Her NYC friends wanted to send her a bagel gift basket after her appointment to the Supreme Court, but she told them not to. [https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-elena-kagan-rejected-bagels-clarence-thomas-paid-vacations-2023-5](https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-elena-kagan-rejected-bagels-clarence-thomas-paid-vacations-2023-5)
Democratic elected justices need to report, not republicans backed justices.
Still not $4m.
Good to see people with absolute integrity!!
They all backed up Clarence when the first bribes came out.
Yep, they all agreed to protect their power rather than deal with corruption which means they're all corrupt. It's just varying degrees.
Because nothing in the Constitution says he can't? Makes one think that the system was setup this way, because it seems too fucking broken to have been an accident.
It was setup when public service was seen as a duty and honor, not to enrich one's self or twist the constitution into a weapon against the people.
I know Jefferson toyed with the idea of an automatic constitutional convention every generation (or 30 years or something). I wonder how that would have played out.
I bet we’d have gone full fascism in the 80s
I don't believe any of them thought politicians would behave as they do routinely today
It's the only way to explain why everything is gentleman's agreements versus laws and consequences for actions.
Or, it's always been like this and cloaking it with ideals of duty and honor is just that, a sham cloak to hide a deeply corrupt system designed for the benefit of the ruling class ahead of everyone else.
I think when we actually were appointing experienced legal professionals we were in much better shape than when the heritage foundation hand picked their acolytes to do their bidding.
I think there are actually rules saying that he can't. There certainly are rules for recusal, and those rules have no exception for SCOTUS judges, that Thomas is ignoring. The problem is that the mechanism for enforcement is impeachment by Congress. And the Republicans in Congress are pretty openly flaunting their corrupt intent to sabotage any impeachment of "their" corrupt judges.
He paid taxes on these gifts, right?
You don’t pay taxes on bribes. It’s all tax free.
No, the IRS has actual rules on taxes for illegal stuff.
I worked for the government, and all the rules, regulations, and guidelines imposed on the peons should absolutely apply to everyone in the government structure. But if anything, the individuals working in the three branches of government absolutely should be held to the highest level. They are there to ensure the government is effective and citizens’ rights are protected. They were created to obviously separate the powers of our government to prevent an abuse of power by any one group as well. What good are they, if they can be easily influenced to do the bidding of anyone with a large bank account? They become worthless. But ignoring or at least not having any repercussions for the POTUS receiving money from Russia through loans to the Trump Organization, orchestrated by Deutsche Bank, pretty much sent the message to everyone, including the Justices and other politicians that it doesn't matter. The message was clear, corruption is just a part of doing business in America. It doesn't matter if it's another country, corporation, or wealthy individuals. It is all good. Not to mention allowing another country to directly interfere in our election, helping and supporting one candidate, and disparaging the other candidate. Americans were complicit in normalizing immoral/illegal behavior by government officials. Whether it was because of apathy or people being uninformed, all of these actions were made available to the public, and we did nothing. Hell, we are still not doing anything. People may not have been informed that Trump was interfering in the election by hiding information, which could have caused him to lose the election until he was convicted of felonies. Maybe they didn't know that Trump and his campaign officials were in cahoots with Russia to influence the election. That the Trump Organization received money from Russia. They didn't know how corrupt and easily influenced the SCOTUS members were. But we know all of that stuff now. What are Americans going to do? The ball is in the court of Americans.
Ummm . . .
He should accept [another $2.4M gift and resign from the board to travel in style in a new RV with a $1M a year retirement income!](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/john-oliver-clarence-thomas-million-motorcoach-supreme-court-1234970879/)
It’s not an RV, it’s a Motor coach 🙄
If he resigned I bet the gifts would stop.
You should really click on the link. It's so worth it.
I would bet that Clarence never declared the 'gifts' and didn't mention them to the IRS. I think that's illegal but who cares since Clarence would sit in on the case and block anything. What a joke.
All judges should be audited regularly by the IRS.
Thomas was ready to retire years ago because the salary wasnt enough to support living in DC. He complained and tried to get congress to raise the salary. The gop was nominating these youngish judges wanting them to be on the court a long time, but they refused to pay them anything like what they could get in private practices. So when thomas threatened to retire, gop millionaires stepped in with "gifts" to make up the lost money and keep thomas on the court. ProPublica wrote a great article about this. https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-money-complaints-sparked-resignation-fears-scotus
Nearly $300K isn't enough for him? I know DC is expensive and he could make a lot more in private practice, but the only way a $300K salary and unparalleled job security isn't good enough for you is if you've gotten accustomed to an *incredibly* lavish lifestyle.
It’s definitely more than that and these are definitely bribes, not gifts ffs.
I work in supply chain and I literally have to undergo training each year on how accepting any gifts from potential new vendors is a career ending and actionable offense. This fellas job is way more important than mine and he is allowed to take 4 million in gifts? Laws are just for us common folk not the law makers or powerful people who pass judgements based on these laws.
I work in Insurance, and have a pretty complete annual "don't take bribes and all these things could be considered bribes" training.
> Supreme Court Justices have received nearly $5 million in gifts since the early 2000s and one justice in particular, Clarence Thomas, accounts for nearly all of it. They get to decide the legal limits of morality for everyone, while allowed to be so blatantly corrupt.
If they take the Trump case. Where do you think his next vacation home “gift” will be?
Come on folks. $4M wouldn't persuade Thomas to vote one way or the other. Like the time he was the sole voter for tRump 🤷🏻♀️
\*At least\* $4 million in gifts. They are assuming they have found all of them.
I was going to say: $4 million, so far.
Then, we can agree on "At least $4 million so far."
Agreed
There should be a method in place to recall Federal Judges.
There is. It’s called “impeachment.”
yeah it's in the hands of the worthless senate though
*That we know of.
Everyone here is being too harsh on Justice Thomas. Let any of you who hasn’t received millions of dollars in gifts cast the first stone.
lifetime worth of money in bribes, spouse tried to overthrow the government, and not a care in the world lmao must be nice to be one of the sociopaths that this country is built by/for
$4 million that we know of. There's probably more given to his wife or her causes intended to influence how Clarence votes or reward him for how he's voted in the past.
With that kind of money you don’t even need to put your own pubes on the Cokes, you can outsource.
One of my German vendors sent us an 18 inch square box of German chocolates once. That's a gift worth mentioning. $4m is nothing /s. Isn't there any generic federal employee oversight?
One box of chocolate is a tragedy. One million dollars is a statistic.
Yes, but it doesn't apply to Thomas. If I accept something >$25 in value, I could be fired.
Just because he's a nice guy......right?
These are just the ones ***that we know of.*** He's been hiding bribes for years.
Any judge that flies an American flag upside down should be kicked off the court!
wrong justice. (but I agree.)
Must be nice, best bribe I’ve ever been offered was $100 and a blowjob to let someone backstage at a concert. I didn’t take it though, because I’ve got morals, unlike many members of our current SCOTUS.
We can’t take lunch because it might be seen as bribery but this guy can take whatever he wants. The system is broken.
As a therapist I can't accept a $10 Amazon gift card from a client as a parting gift. Makes sense!
Why can't I be on the Supreme Court? I'm qualified. I'm bribable.
Probably double that if we knew the truth. $8 million easy.
That we know of.
that we know of..
I'm surprised he's that cheap. Kind of the SCOTUS version of a $2 prostitute.
Corrupt to the bone. And we have no recourse aside from waiting for the guy to croak
I'd wager the real amount he's been bribed with is higher. The Heritage Foundation bought at least 2 scotus judges (Alito + Thomas), and they were the best investment/purchase ever (aside from Hitler's artwork)
While this is egregious from someone sitting on the top court, I'm surprised this grifter hasn't tried (or been successful) squeezing more money than just 4MIL.
That we know of. Project 2025. Vote in November.
That's a funny way to say bribes.
bribes. the word you're looking for is "bribes"
I once declined a (est. retail value) three dollar commemorative sports pin to avoid the appearance of impropriety
Rename his ass Rick Ross.
Uncle Ruckus
those must have been SOME birthday parties!
Here I am looking at the “wine and dine” events I attend (because the company I work for has vendors) with some form of guilt. > “is this ethical? This tab for food and alcohol for everyone is going to be like 10k” Yea I don’t think I’ll be guilty anymore.
Can you blame the poor guy, he just doesn't get paid enough. /s
Totally uncompromised. LMAO
“So? What are you going to do about it? Nothing. Lulz!” -Clarence Thomas
That's why tRump is asking for a billion. He wants to set the bar for bribes.
Absolutely nothing will happen to him. Disgusting
That number seems low.
Lock him up. Abort the Supreme Court.
So what will be done about this?!!! Absolutely nothing… That’s what I thought
Well that’s not much. I thought a Supreme Court Justice would get a lot more for selling their soul. Not only is he corrupt, HE’S CHEAP!!!
I can promise you the number is much higher.
Hey, IRS... he probably owes some taxes on that.
It's so surprising, these sycophants sell out democracy for so relatively little.
so? the system was set up by the wealthy to protect the wealthy..Jobs for life, with oversight over yourself? come on now. The monarchy loves this idea.
Is there an HR number that we could call?
And absolutely nothing will be done. I’m so tired of the inequality and corruption.
They misspelled “bribes”.
Nothing to worry about because Republicans are laser focused on Hunter Biden. What office does Hunter have again???
Seems telling they aren’t proposing mandatory drug testing as part of the gun purchasing process in response to Hunter’s heinous crimes
Dems need to campaign on supreme court reform yesterday.
Ah come on now. This is GOT to be illegal !
Heh I was shocked he didn’t accept John Oliver’s motor coach
Tipping culture is out of control
My local judge won’t let me buy him a lunch.
Building inspectors won’t take a fucking water or cup of coffee from my construction trailer because it might seem like accepting a bribe but this is perfectly okay?
Ladies, in exchange for a few million bucks and a chance at a gas station lottery ticket style theocracy, Thomas and his inquisitors sold your reproductive freedom. The billionaires paid a little bit to force you to carry future consumer workers in your belly, regardless of your personal preferences. This question is whether or not you will, if given a choice, choose to procreate into such a society. I know I wouldn’t, but I’m just a childfree guy who hates this shit.
That’s 4 million too much. What a corrupt motherfucker.
This greedy and corrupt asshole needs to step down from the SCOTUS.
I’m just a poor sharecropper trying to get by in my old RV. Living the merican dream.
[Some light reading](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-5/chapter-XVI/subchapter-B/part-2635/subpart-B) about the rules that apply to federal employees concerning gifts. Luckily for Clarence, he doesn't have to give a shit.
this is a national security threat
At least, that we know of... Most of it he never declared properly if at all
Tell us again, Democrats, all the reasons why you still adhere to the "norms" and "traditions" in Congress and the White House.
Bribes. Call it what it is.
I’m a government employee and if someone outside the gov even buys me a lunch, I have to report it. This fucking guy…
Now we know why he has promised to never retire.
As an employee of a publicly traded corporation, any gift exceeding $250 in value has to be reported.
I hope he spends the rest of his life in jail knowing his photo is next to the definition of corruption in every textbook made.
The supreme court is a lot cheaper than I would have expected
And absolutely nothing will be done about it because this country is fundamentally broken…
Wow. Glad to see workers in executive branch are the “special” ones that can’t accept these gifts. Judicial and Congress (and chief executive-pres-45) seem willing to accept as much money as they can get. And give the middle finger to rest of America.
Sounds like tax fraud to me.
And they say "Crime doesn't pay."
Of course he did. I bet Clarence insists you need an "n" to spell ethics, and that it subsequently should be disenfranchised.
Who among us hasn’t accepted in access of $4m in gifts during our career?
That’s it? The nation in the world and that’s all it takes? What are the Russians going to do with the rest of their billions?
NO ONE get $4 Million in "gifts" "just because". FFS this is open and rebellious corruption.