Clarence Thomas didn’t include wife’s income on SCOTUS disclosure forms
Posted: January 23, 2011 Filed under: just because, SCOTUS, U.S. Politics | Tags: Clarence Thomas, dishonesty, judicial ethics, Virginia Thomas 12 Comments
Clarence and Virginia Thomas
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas failed to report his wife’s income from a conservative think tank on financial disclosure forms for at least five years, the watchdog group Common Cause said Friday.
Between 2003 and 2007, Virginia Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, earned $686,589 from the Heritage Foundation, according to a Common Cause review of the foundation’s IRS records. Thomas failed to note the income in his Supreme Court financial disclosure forms for those years, instead checking a box labeled “none” where “spousal noninvestment income” would be disclosed.
A Supreme Court spokesperson could not be reached for comment late Friday. But Virginia Thomas’ employment by the Heritage Foundation was well known at the time.
Common Cause also claims that Virginia Thomas was paid for her work for the right wing group Liberty Central, which she founded; but Clarence Thomas did not report any spousal income for 2009.
Federal judges are bound by law to disclose the source of spousal income, according to Stephen Gillers, a professor at NYU School of Law. Thomas’ omission — which could be interpreted as a violation of that law — could lead to some form of penalty, Gillers said.
“It wasn’t a miscalculation; he simply omitted his wife’s source of income for six years, which is a rather dramatic omission,” Gillers said. “It could not have been an oversight.”
Unfortunately, according to the LA Times article, Thomas is unlikely to be disciplined in any way for his latest ethical misstep. It seems that people of his class can get away with such infractions.
Common Cause has also requested that the Justice Department investigate whether Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia should have recused themselves from the Citizens United decision after they participated in a private meeting sponsored by the ultraconservative, tea-party funding Koch brothers.
This is an open thread.
peej
Carissa
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Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Jets lose….It’s Packers vs. Steelers.
Hey, at least I don’t have “Alien hand syndrome.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12225163
We joke with my son that he has this, he is always grabbing stuff with no apparent reason, usually breaking it within seconds.
May I say that this is disgusting. Ethics is one of the most important virtues in law, to see this Supreme Court Justice blatantly lie about his wife’s income is really disappointing. Not to mention the other questionable issue that you or Dak brought up this past week, about Thomas and Scallia. Do Scalia and Thomas have a conflict of interest with their ties to the Koch Brothers Billionaire Caucus Retreat? | Crooks and Liars
Maybe Clarence Thomas used the same Turbo Tax program that Timmy Geithner used. How do you spell conflict of interest?
Clarence Thomas is one of those folks that disproves the peter principle. He’s one of those that proves Irma Bombeck’s saying about septic tanks and what rises to make the grass above them sooooo green.
From Wiki: The Peter Principle is stated in chapter 1 of the book with the same title: “In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence”.
Actually it proves both Peter’s and Erma’s principles.
Since they’re just making it up as they go along, his wife should claim income from the Pinkerton Agency and tell the FBI she was harassing Anita Hill in a professional capacity.
lol
Hey, this is OT. Jack LaLanne, Father of Fitness Movement, Dies at 96 – NYTimes.com
Has anyone seen this film? Miss Representation Sundance 2011: Is the media keeping women out of politics? [Updated] | 24 Frames | Los Angeles Times
I remember reading about it some time ago.
No, but thanks for the link.