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Thomas has agreed to follow updated requirements on reporting
trips and gifts, including clearer guidelines on hospitality
from friends, the U.S. Judicial Conference wrote to Democratic
senators who had called for an investigation into undisclosed
acceptance of luxury trips.
Thomas has previously said he wasn’t required to disclose the
many trips he and his wife took that were paid for by wealthy
benefactors like Republican megadonor Harlan Crow because they
are close personal friends. The court didn't immediately respond
to a request for comment Thursday.
The Supreme Court adopted its first code of ethics in 2023 in
the face of sustained criticism, though the new code still lacks
a means of enforcement.
It’s unclear whether the law allows the U.S. Judicial Conference
to make a criminal referral regarding a Supreme Court justice,
U.S. District Judge Robert Conrad wrote. He serves as secretary
for the conference, which sets policy for the federal court
system and is led by Chief Justice John Roberts.
A referral in this case isn’t necessary, Conrad said, because
two Democratic senators called on Attorney General Merrick
Garland to appoint a special counsel over the summer. No such
appointment has been publicly made.
The group Fix the Court said the financial disclosure law is
clear and should apply to justices. “The Conference’s letters
further underscore the need for Congress to create a new and
transparent mechanism to investigate the justices for ethics
violations since the Conference is unwilling to act upon the one
method we had presumed existed to do that,” Executive Director
Gabe Roth said in a statement.
Conrad also sent a similar response to a separate complaint from
a conservative legal group, the Center for Renewing America, in
regard to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s reports on the source
of her husband's consulting income. Jackson has since amended
her disclosures and also agreed to updated reporting
requirements, Conrad wrote.
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