'Highly unusual': Body that governs federal courts hints at Clarence Thomas investigation

At the behest of an anti-corruption watchdog group, the Judicial Conference of the United States (JCUS) has issued a report suggesting that it may be conducting a rare investigation into Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas.

Earlier this week, the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) issued an update on its request to the JCUS to publish its Report of the Proceedings from its September 2023 meeting, arguing that "public interest" necessitated information on efforts to have Justice Thomas referred to the Department of Justice for alleged violations of financial disclosure laws. The JCUS' report only said there was an "ongoing review of public written allegations of errors or omissions in a filer’s financial disclosure reports," but the CLC viewed that as a significant development.

"While this step may not seem like a cause for celebration, the fact that the Judicial Conference even provided such an update in its Report of the Proceedings is highly unusual," the CLC stated. "The last time the Judicial Conference received letters regarding Justice Thomas' apparent willful violations of [the Ethics in Government Act] for failing to disclose private plane travel, back in 2011, the Judicial Conference completely ignored them."

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JCUS' update was also noticed by elected officials, with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) tweeting an excerpt of the report that mentioned the "ongoing review" into an unnamed filer who is almost certainly Clarence Thomas.

Even though the JCUS — whose membership consists of the chief justice of each federal circuit court, the Chief Judge of the Court of International Trade and a US district judge from each circuit — is charged with regulating judicial ethics, it's unable to impeach judges or remove them from the bench. However, it does have the power to refer judges to the DOJ for investigation that can potentially lead to civil penalties.

"While the Chief Justice claims the other branches have no authority over the courts, every justice files — to varying degrees of completeness — the government employee financial disclosures in question, conceding the obligation to follow that law," author Joe Patrice wrote for legal website Above the Law.

Justice Thomas has been subjected to increased scrutiny amid reports that he routinely accepted gifts from wealthy benefactors — including luxury vacations, private school tuition for his children, rent-free housing for his mother and even a lavish recreational vehicle — for years without properly disclosing them. Many of these gifts came from friends of Thomas who had business before the Court, which issued decisions in those cases without Thomas' recusal.

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