Thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling in 2010, a trove of “dark money” was about to be unleashed. Leonard Leo and Clarence Thomas' wife Ginny Thomas seized the moment.

#SupremeCourt #CitizensUnited #LeonardLeo #ClarenceThomas #GinnyThomas

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/10/ginni-thomas-leonard-leo-citizens-united-00108082

"In the months before the US supreme court handed down Citizens United, the 2010 ruling which unleashed a flood of dark money into American politics, the wife of a conservative justice worked with a prominent rightwing activist and a mega-donor closely linked to her husband to form a group to exploit the decision."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/11/ginni-thomas-leonard-leo-harlan-crow-citizens-united-dark-money

#thieves #liars #sins #greed #ginnithomas #clarencethomas #LeonardLeo #supremecourt #corruption

Ginni Thomas and rightwing activists exploited supreme court ruling – report #GinniThomas #HarlanCrow #ClarenceThomas #CitizensUnited #LeonardLeo https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/11/ginni-thomas-leonard-leo-harlan-crow-citizens-united-dark-money

Excellent reporting by @HeidiReports it continues & gets even crazier w/millions going to #GinniThomas; characters such as #JohnEastman, #CletaMitchell & more submit amicus briefs & attempt to influence #SCOTUS; #CarrieSeverino a #ClarenceThomas clerk & #LeonardLeo #JEP assoc briefs SCOTUS on the anti-#abortion anti-#Obamacare #HobbyLobby case; the 2016 #Trump election; #FederalistSociety groomed judges #AmyConeyBarrett, #BrettKavanaugh & #NeilGorsuch get appointed.
Recommended read.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Ronald Reagan appointee, assumed in his majority opinion in #CitizensUnited that #donations & #spending around such groups would be transparent. Justice #ClarenceThomas, in his concurring opinion, argued against “forcibly disclosed donor information,” which could “pre-empt citizens’ exercise of their First Amendment rights.”

…The application was approved 7 days before #ClarenceThomas joined the 5-4 majority on a decision that would open the door to a new era of major #spending on groups like the one his wife was forming. After putting up $500k, the lion’s share of her #nonprofit’s seed money, #HarlanCrow held an event for #GinniThomas at his palatial home in Dallas. The group later made clear its goal was disassembling President Barack #Obama’s agenda, mainly the #AffordableCareAct.

#DarkMoney #SCOTUS #Corruption

The activists included #FederalistSociety leader #LeonardLeo &his ideological soulmate, a hard-edged activist named #GinniThomas, the wife of #SCOTUS Justice #ClarenceThomas.
“Ginni really wanted to build an organization & be a movement leader. Leonard [Leo] was going to be the conduit of that” said a person familiar….
She also had… #HarlanCrow, the… #billionaire who helped Thomas & her husband in many ways, from #funding #luxury #vacations to picking up #tuition payments for their great-nephew.

Ginni Thomas got herself a puppet for the cause with ol' Clarence. And she made sure the billionaires gave him a taste of the good life to keep him in line.

Horrid, horrid people....both of them: #ClarenceThomas and #GinniThomas and their theocratic power based agenda.

The powerful "elites" whom she has so decried have funded her and her puppet's entire lifestyle . What a fuking hypocrite. Lock her the F up!

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/10/ginni-thomas-leonard-leo-citizens-united-00108082

What Ginni Thomas and Leonard Leo wrought: How a justice’s wife and a key activist started a movement https://politi.co/3ExpGO9 via @politico #scotus #clarencethomas #ginnithomas #leoleonard #citizensunited

While I have little doubt that #SCOTUS Justice #ClarenceThomas will go down in #history, I strongly suspect it will not be in the way he expects.

Or maybe he *does* expect to be remembered as a corrupt ideologue, and is perfectly happy sitting on his rich "friend"'s deck, smoking a stogie, and giving a finger to the American public.

#corruption

https://www.wonkette.com/p/clarence-thomas-responds-to-ethics?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1783367&post_id=136820292&isFreemail=true&r=tdmdr&utm_medium=email

@SteveThompson I wonder what Justice Thomas thinks he's being reimbursed for?
#SCOTUS #ClarenceThomas #HarlanCrow

Judge cleared of making her views clear during campaign instead of lying like some Supreme Court justice or other.
https://apnews.com/article/wisconsin-supreme-court-impeach-865fadb85762b0039490f218da3b8db8
#Justice #Corruption #BrettKavanaugh #JohnRoberts #SamuelAlito #AmyConeyBarret #ClarenceThomas

The judge defending Clarence Thomas has his own ethical conundrum
_____
Unlike Supreme Court justices, other federal judges are subject to ethical rules, and Federal Appeals Court Judge Amul Thapar appears to have violated them by using government employees (his law clerks) to help him write his book, "The People's Justice: Clarence Thomas and the Constitutional Stories that Define Him."

#SCOTUS #ClarenceThomas #AmulThapar #StevenLubet #Corruption

https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/4186393-the-judge-defending-clarence-thomas-has-his-own-ethical-conundrum/

Only 32% of Americans rate the honesty of the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court, as high. 90% think the court should have a formal code of ethics. The court's approval rating stands at 40%, the lowest this century. Only 25% have a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the court. 40% think the court has too much power, down from only 21% four years ago.

In short, the Supreme Court needs a formal ethics code.
#SCOTUS #ClarenceThomas

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/03/politics/supreme-court-ethics-code-clarence-thomas

Island-hopping on a superyacht. Private jet rides around the world. The undisclosed gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the Supreme Court.

“It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this,” says one former judge.

#ClarenceThomas #HarlanCrow #SCOTUS #grifters https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow

As #ClarenceThomas faces record unpopularity, #Americans want an #ethics code for the #SupremeCourt

https://flip.it/-g6AFv

Democrats Unimpressed With Clarence Thomas's Feeble Attempt At Transparency

https://abovethelaw.com/2023/09/democrats-unimpressed-with-clarence-thomass-feeble-attempt-at-transparency/

#AboveTheLaw #ClarenceThomas #Transparency #Democrats #Unimpressed #FeebleAttempt #Politics #News

#JohnEastman #ClarenceThomas #scotus John Eastman gives Clarence Thomas a cursed endorsement
Donald Trump’s former lawyer, who is charged with trying to overthrow the 2020 presidential election, signed a letter vouching for Thomas’ integrity. https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/john-eastman-clarence-thomas-letter-integrity-rcna102552

#scotus #ClarenceThomas https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5B4iNvW4AAYaaM?format=png&name=900x900

"The fact that Justice Thomas reported the information about his trips courtesy of Crow this past year is an acknowledgment that he should have been doing it all along."

After saying this, Joyce Vance goes on to stress how important it is for journalists and the public to shine a light on the behavior of Supreme justices — when the Chief Justice seems ill-inclined to hold his own bench to ethical standards.

#ClarenceThomas #SupremeCourt #corruption #ethics

https://joycevance.substack.com/p/three-things-for-your-labor-day-picnic