Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top lawmaker on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the panel would act on allegations that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted lavish gifts from a billionaire Republican donor over a period of decades.
For years, Thomas took luxury trips and outings on yachts and private jets owned by Dallas businessman Harlan Crow, according to an investigation by ProPublica. But Thomas did not disclose the travel, the investigation found. Crow has donated lavishly to Republican candidates.
Durbin said in a statement that the report was a “call to action” for lawmakers, arguing Supreme Court justices needed a code of ethics that could be enforced.
“The highest court in the land shouldn’t have the lowest ethical standards,” Durbin said in a statement. “Today’s report demonstrates, yet again, that Supreme Court Justices must be held to an enforceable code of conduct… the Senate Judiciary Committee will act.”
It was unclear what action the committee would take, but Durbin joined a number of other Democrats who weighed in on the Thomas news; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called for the justice to be impeached.
“This is beyond party or partisanship,” Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter. “This degree of corruption is shocking — almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said the news called for an independent investigation.
“This cries out for the kind of independent investigation that the Supreme Court — and only the Supreme Court, across the entire government— refuses to perform,” Whitehouse said on Twitter.
Crow in a statement did not deny the allegations that Thomas and his wife accepted the gifts from him, but stated that the couple never asked for them.
“The hospitality we have extended to the Thomas’s over the years is no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends,” Crow said in a statement. “Justice Thomas and Ginni never asked for any of this hospitality,” referring to the justice’s wife, Ginni Thomas.