Hirono Joins Senate Judiciary Democrats in Urging Chief Justice Roberts to Investigate Justice Thomas’ Undisclosed Gifts and Take Action to Prevent Further Misconduct

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined all of the Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats, in sending a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts calling on the Chief Justice to investigate a ProPublica report that Justice Clarence Thomas accepted and failed to disclose 20 years’ worth of lavish gifts and luxury travel from prominent Republican donor Harlan Crow.

In the letter, the Senators announce that the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the need to restore confidence in the Supreme Court’s ethical standards. The letter notes that Judiciary Committee Democrats previously wrote Chief Justice Roberts in 2012 urging that the Court adopt a resolution binding the Justices to the same Code of Conduct that binds all other federal judges, but Chief Justice Roberts refused. This 2012 letter was sent amidst earlier public reports of Justice Thomas’s acceptance of favors from Mr. Crow, conduct that escalated after the Court’s refusal to act. The letter notes that Chief Justice Roberts does not need to wait for Congress to act to ensure that the Justices abide by ethical standards that bind other federal judges, but said that if the Chief Justice fails to address the matter, the Committee will take up legislation to resolve it. 

The Senators wrote, “The Senate Judiciary Committee, which has legislative jurisdiction over Federal courts and judges, has a role to play in ensuring that the nation’s highest court does not have the federal judiciary’s lowest ethical standards.  You have a role to play as well, both in investigating how such conduct could take place at the Court under your watch, and in ensuring that such conduct does not happen again.  We urge you to immediately open such an investigation and take all needed action to prevent further misconduct.”

“It is troubling that your 2011 year-end report, which dismissed the call for the Justices to adopt the Code of Conduct, was written notwithstanding the known concerns about Mr. Crow’s largesse.  This problem could have been resolved then.  Instead, according to ProPublica’s reporting, Mr. Crow’s dispensation of favors escalated in secret during the years that followed.  Now the Court faces a crisis of public confidence in its ethical standards that must be addressed,” the letter continued. “In the coming days, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing regarding the need to restore confidence in the Supreme Court’s ethical standards.  And if the Court does not resolve this issue on its own, the Committee will consider legislation to resolve it.  But you do not need to wait for Congress to act to undertake your own investigation into the reported conduct and to ensure that it cannot happen again.”

In addition to Senator Hirono, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chris Coons (D-DE), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), and Peter Welch (D-VT). 

The full text of the letter is available here.

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