US supreme court: Clarence Thomas reportedly accepted more undisclosed gifts as calls for reform grow
10 July 2023 ( The Guardian )
An exclusive circle of “extraordinarily wealthy, largely conservative” Americans is in the spotlight after a New York Times investigation revealed how the supreme court justice, Clarence Thomas, has benefited from being a member.
The Times reported on Sunday that just months after Thomas joined the bench in 1991, he was welcomed into the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, where he forged relationships with an exclusive circle of wealthy and powerful members “who lionized him” and gave him proximity to “a lifestyle of unimaginable material privilege.”
The paper writes:
While he has never held an official leadership position, in some ways he has become the association’s leading light. He has granted it unusual access to the Supreme Court, where every year he presides over the group’s signature event: a ceremony in the courtroom at which he places Horatio Alger medals around the necks of new lifetime members. One entrepreneur called it ‘the closest thing to being knighted in the United States.’
This organization granted him access to wealthy friends who gifted Thomas with luxurious vacation retreats and VIP tickets to sporting events, as well as invited him to parties, according to the paper. Thomas did not disclose many of the gifts and trips over the last two decades reported by the Times.
The latest revelation comes amid scrutiny over Thomas prompted by a ProPublica report revealing that he had received gifts from the Republican mega-donor, Harlan Crow. ProPublica has reported that gifts from Crow to Thomas included luxury travel and resort stays, purchase of a property in which the justice’s mother lives rent-free, and schooling for Thomas’s great-nephew.
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