The Care and Feeding of Supreme Court Justices

In addition to going on expensive vacations with wealthy right-wing donors who have interests before the Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas has, ProPublica reported last week, secretly participated in fundraising efforts for organizations bankrolled by the Koch network, the right-wing advocacy organization founded by the billionaire brothers Charles and the late David Koch. Thomas was “brought in to speak,” staffers told ProPublica, “in the hopes that such access would encourage donors to continue giving.”

Although the failure to disclose the trip to Palm Springs, California, on the Kochs’ dime might have violated federal law, it’s hardly the only example of Thomas hiding financial relationships with wealthy conservatives. Harlan Crow, the right-wing billionaire who frequently brings Thomas on luxury vacations—although by who has done so—also owns the land , and has for Thomas’s nephew, whom Thomas is raising. Thomas is not the sole right-wing justice benefiting from his the generosity of such men. Thomas is also that illuminate connections between the wealthy and the powerful, and the rest of the Court’s .