Originally Posted by James Brown
Hi Dave: I think our judiciary is quite independent. The press is trying to make Thomas out to be beholden to right wing donors, but there is no evidence that this is the case. The simple fact is that Thomas has a conservative judicial philosophy, and he has ruled in every instance in accordance with his core conservative judicial philosophy. This is no different than RBG, Sotomayor, Brown-Jackson or others adhering to their liberal judicial philosophies.
Thomas has not accepted cash donations. He has accepted trips and lodging from wealthy conservatives. This is not a great look for Thomas, but there is no indication whatsoever that it affects his judicial outlook, which was well known, long before he was appointed to the Supreme Court. There are new disclosure rules in place. It will take some time for the Justices to make sure their disclosures are compliant, because there will be immense press scruitiny.
Rod has a weakness for Thomas bashing, because their philosophies are so opposite. That does not mean that Thomas has ever been credibly accused of corruption at any level.
Unfortunately, I can't hang around to explore this - Gotta plane to catch. Hope your air quality is not too miserable... We had that a few years ago when large California fires were burning and it is really crummy. Jim
Jim, it's more than just a "bad look". When Thomas, for example, provides a self-made video of himself extolling his persona as "normal stock" in that he prefers RVing in Walmart parking lots to trips to the ocean or mountains, that's a deliberate misrepresentation of himself to the public. And, while as far as we know, he hasn't accepted any cash donations, his previously undeclared yachting trips and private jet excursions provided to him by Harlan Crow, each worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, can can reasonably be construed as another form of payment. Add to that the real estate deals and the tuition coverage of his relative, also provided by Harlan, then you begin to see the pattern of an established relationship, reportedly occurring during Thomas tenure on the court and not before it. Additionally, Thomas is the only SCOTUS justice I'm aware of that publicly called for conservative cases to be brought before himself and the court so he could hear them. Finally, in the Trump records appeal, he failed to recuse himself while his wife(aka his "friend"
had persistently advocated for overturning a free and fair election, and he was only dissenting judge in that particular case.
PS: I didn't add any emoticons so I don't know why it's there. Hope you had a nice filght.
