Clarence Thomas didn’t include wife’s income on SCOTUS disclosure forms

Clarence and Virginia Thomas

Ooopsie!

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.