Clarence Thomas Showing 'Contempt' Towards American People: Lawyer

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' disregard for legal disclosure mandates is showing "contempt" for the American people, a lawyer has said.

Thomas has come under fresh scrutiny since it was revealed earlier this month that the justice and his wife took trips paid for by billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow for years without disclosing them.

ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization, later reported that Crow purchased three properties belonging to Thomas and his family in a transaction worth more than $100,000 that Thomas never reported. Federal officials, including Supreme Court justices, are required to disclose details of most real estate transactions over $1,000.

And on Sunday, The Washington Post revealed that Thomas has reported receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars of rental income from a real estate company that has not existed since 2006.

The errors and omissions Thomas has made on required annual financial disclosure forms have fueled calls for an official ethics investigation.

Following The Washington Post's report, lawyer David R. Lurie tweeted: "Thomas's disregard for legal disclosure mandates exemplifies the attitude of the Supreme Court's extremist majority toward the citizens to whom they issue increasingly imperious dictates: Contempt."

Newsweek reached out to Lurie via Twitter and a Supreme Court spokesperson via email for comment.

Lurie also warned that the nation's federal courts are "living on borrowed legitimacy" in a post for journalist Aaron Rupar's Public Notice newsletter last week.

He wrote that "the corrupt conduct of Justice Thomas demonstrates, some members of the Trump Era judiciary appear to believe there is no longer a need for them even to maintain an appearance of judicial probity."

He noted that Thomas had not recused himself from election cases following the 2020 election even though his wife, Virginia Thomas, a conservative activist, had reached out to the Trump White House and lawmakers to urge them to attempt to overturn election results.

"We now know that — even as Ginni Thomas was raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars from 'family friend' Harlan Crow — Thomas himself was receiving lavish gifts of travel and other benefits from the billionaire, a right-wing activist, with an intense interest in the subject matters of many cases that come before the Court," Lurie wrote.

"On that background, the fact that Thomas refused to recuse himself from a case implicating his wife's conduct in the wake of the 2020 election seems not only unsurprising, but indeed par for the course."

A day after ProPublica's initial report, Thomas responded with a statement saying he was not required to disclose the trips.

"Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable," he said.

Last month, the federal judiciary adopted new rules requiring all judges, including the high court justices, to disclose more of their activities but overnight stays at personal vacation homes owned by friends remain exempt from disclosure.

"It is, of course, my intent to follow this guidance in the future," Thomas said.