US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, has found herself at the center of controversy after accepting tens of thousands of dollars from Leonard Leo, the president of the conservative legal organization known as the Federalist Society. This revelation, brought to light in a recent report by The Washington Post, adds to a series of alleged financial improprieties surrounding the Thomases.
According to the report, between June 2011 and June 2012, Leo paid Ginni’s consulting firm a minimum of $80,000 for her services. It was discovered that Leo utilized Kellyanne Conway, a former advisor to President Donald Trump and a Republican party pollster at the time, to facilitate the financial transactions between Leo’s Judicial Education Project and Ginni’s Liberty Consulting. Documents obtained during the investigation revealed that Leo explicitly requested that Ginni’s name be excluded from the records. Instead, Conway’s Polling Company listed the payments as “Supplement for Constitution Polling and Opinion Consulting.”
In December 2012, the Judicial Education Project filed an amicus brief in Shelby County v. Holder, pending before the US Supreme Court. This case involved a challenge to a portion of the landmark Voting Rights Act. The Court granted the case review in November 2012. The Washington Post’s report suggests that Leo and Ginni’s relationship likely continued until the end of that year. Documents from the Polling Company indicated that an additional $20,000 payment was to be made from the Judicial Education Project to Liberty Consulting between June and December 2012.
When approached for comment, Leo responded by stating that Ginni Thomas has a history of working on conservative movement issues, including assessing public attitudes and sentiment. He claimed that her involvement in this case had no connection to the Court’s business or other legal matters. Neither the Thomases nor Conway provided a comment to The Washington Post.
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This revelation comes shortly after ProPublica reported that Justice Thomas failed to disclose several thousand dollars in private gifts from conservative donor Harlan Crow. The gifts allegedly included tuition payments for Thomas’s great-nephew, private flights, vacations, and yacht trips.
The recent disclosures have prompted criticism from various quarters. Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin, expressed concern over Justice Thomas’s financial connections with Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo. Durbin argued that the cumulative evidence undermines the Court’s reputation and highlights the dangers of its longstanding ethical vacuum. He called on Chief Justice John Roberts to intervene and address the situation.
While other branches of the federal government and lower federal courts adhere to codes of ethics, the US Supreme Court largely relies on self-policing. This issue was previously highlighted in 2019 by Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan. The lack of a robust ethics framework has raised questions about the integrity and transparency of the highest court in the land.
As the revelations surrounding Ginni Thomas’s financial dealings continue to unfold, the Supreme Court faces mounting pressure to address the ethical concerns and safeguard its reputation. The ongoing scrutiny of Justice Thomas’s connections underscores the importance of maintaining high ethical standards within the judiciary and ensuring public trust in the judicial system’s integrity.