On Thursday, ProPublica revealed that a right-wing billionaire has secretly funded a lavish lifestyle for Justice Clarence Thomas. Then on Friday, a federal judge in Texas tried to block the use around the country of mifepristone, the medication used in half of all abortions. These two dramatic twists are part of the same story. They show a judicial system out of control, in thrall to right-wing activists and swimming in cash.
It seems that Thomas routinely received luxury travel, gifts and accommodations from Harlan Crow, a real estate developer and Republican benefactor.
Details are eye-popping, a tale of luxury trips to faraway vacations, luxury yachts and private jet excursions that would be valued at $500,000 a pop. A painting shows Thomas, Crow and Leonard Leo, the leader of the conservative Federalist Society, puffing stogies at a private hotel owned by the real estate mogul: an instantly iconic image of a hermetically sealed world of wealth, ideological militancy and elite chumminess.
Leo, of course, has worked with astonishing success to pack the federal courts with conservatives.
Thomas has issued a statement saying that he was merely vacationing with family friends, and he had been advised “by colleagues and others in the judiciary” that there was no need for him to disclose the billionaire’s beneficence. Even if he did ask around, that is part of the problem.