'It pays to be Clarence': Data shows justice raked in 'staggering' $4 million in gifts
Supreme Court Justices have received about $4.7 million in gifts over the past two decades — more than $4 million of which was pocketed by Clarence Thomas, newly revealed data show.
Outrage erupted Thursday as word spread of the new "staggering tally" of Supreme Court gifts which was collected by the nonprofit accountability group Fix the Court.
“Supreme Court justices should not be accepting gifts, let alone the hundreds of freebies worth millions of dollars they’ve received over the years,” Fix the Court’s Gabe Roth said in a public statement. “The ethics crisis at the Court won’t begin to abate until justices adopt stricter gift acceptance rules.”
This data arrived the same day the Supreme Court failed, once again, to issue a ruling on former president and convicted felon Donald Trump's presidential immunity argument in his federal election interference case.
Thomas was found to have received 193 gifts — which include meals, lodging and flights — worth $4,042,286 and 126 additional "likely" gifts valued at $1,837,510, the data show.
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His total estimate comes to $5,879,796. In comparison, Justice Stephen Breyer — appointed by former President Bill Clinton in 1994 and retired in 2022 — accepted six gifts worth a total of $15,700, the group found.
The stark contrast between Thomas and other justices quickly caused an uproar among those who follow the nation's highest court.
"It pays to be Justice Clarence Thomas," quipped Economist Supreme Court reporter Steven Mazie.
"Clarence Thomas raked in about 85% of all the freebies handed to justices," added researcher Ross Elder. "ANY gifts to SCOTUS justices should be illegal. It should be the same for all elected officials, too."
New York Times columnist Steven Rattner charted the difference with message: "One of these Justices is not like the others."