Courts

Clarence Thomas's Membership In Fancy Rich Person Club Under Fire

Members of the club got rare access to the Supreme Court.

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If we were updating Benjamin Franklin’s famous idiom about permanency, it might be “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes, and Clarence Thomas ethics scandals.” Because, yeah, there’s another one.

The latest publication questioning the Supreme Court justice is the New York Times. Yesterday, they published a report on Thomas’s membership in the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, which he joined after his elevation to the High Court. There, they report, Thomas was able to hobnob with the ultra rich from whom he received many lavish gifts — largely unreported on disclosure forms:

His friendships forged through Horatio Alger have brought him proximity to a lifestyle of unimaginable material privilege. Over the years, his Horatio Alger friends have welcomed him at their vacation retreats, arranged V.I.P. access to sporting events and invited him to their lavish parties. In 2004, he joined celebrities including Oprah Winfrey and Ed McMahon at a three-day 70th birthday bash in Montana for the industrialist Dennis Washington. Several Horatio Alger friends also helped finance the marketing of a hagiographic documentary about the justice in the wake of an HBO film that had resurfaced Anita Hill’s sexual harassment allegations against him during his confirmation.

Indeed, Thomas says the Horatio Alger Association was so important to him (and his wife, Ginni) that it was like “home.” And in return, the club and its members got access to the Court:

He has granted [the Horatio Alger Association] 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.”

Sources even says Thomas relished that he could provide this unique experience exclusively for members of the Association.

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Justice Thomas’s use of the courtroom for the Horatio Alger Association, while hardly unprecedented, is quite rare. That special access and affiliation with Justice Thomas have become central to the identities of the organization and its members. Several have said they counted among their proudest achievements having Justice Thomas bestow their Horatio Alger medallions at the Supreme Court.

“He really seemed to like the fact that everyone else enjoys being in the courtroom,” said [Anthony Hutcherson, former event producer and communications specialist for the Horatio Alger Association]. Among people of almost inexhaustible wealth, “he could give them that, and nobody else could.”

And, like clockwork, this latest revelation has led to advocacy organizations demanding (likely unsuccessfully) increased transparency at the Supreme Court. But the growing list of ethics issues (around the Supreme Court generally, and Thomas, specifically) is rapidly becoming an issue that will have to be dealt with — while the Court still has shreds of its legitimacy left.

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.

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