America’s Worst Judge?: Clarence Thomas and His Silent Life of Luxury

America’s Worst Judge?
Clarence Thomas and his silent life of luxury

By Kevin Schulte
4/20/2023, 5:02 p.m

Clarence Thomas has been one of the most combative figures on the US Supreme Court for three decades. Now the arch-conservative judge is at least morally implausible. He is said to have been invited to luxury trips by a major Republican donor for years – private jet and yacht included.

Clarence Thomas is an odd, rather inconspicuous guy. For seven years he didn’t say a word in the United States Supreme Court, despite being one of the nine most influential judges in the United States. It was not until 2013 that the arch-conservative representative of the Supreme Court broke his silence. In 2016 he even made a request for the first time in ten years. The man, who has been the Supreme Court Justice of the United States since 1991, likes it quiet. Also in his free time.

In a documentary about his life, Thomas says he prefers camping and Walmart parking lots to beaches and places like that. “I come from a normal background and prefer a normal life,” says the judge in the film “Created Equal”.

But nothing seems to be “normal” in the life of Clarence Thomas. The longest-serving judge on the Supreme Court leads a life of luxury away from the cameras, like Propublica revealed: private jet, super yacht, men’s vacation in a luxury Californian resort, decadent island hopping in Indonesia – trips that have nothing to do with the image of the Walmart judge, Propublica reporter Joshua Kaplan tells in a YouTube video of the investigative platform. “The scale really surprised us. We found that Judge Thomas has been doing these luxury trips, flying on a large private jet, cruising on a super yacht, practically every year for the past 20 years.”

$500,000 trip to Indonesia

Supreme Court judges earn $285,000 a year in the US. Anything but little, but also not enough for private jets and luxury yachts. But Thomas didn’t pay for his trips himself, Harlan Crow did. The billionaire real estate mogul from Texas has been known as a major donor to the Republican Party for many years. For two decades he is also said to have invited Judge Thomas and his wife Ginni on several trips.

The trip to Indonesia is said to have been particularly decadent, as Propublica reporter Kaplan reports. Thomas and his wife flew to Asia on Crow’s private jet in 2019 and then spent nine days aboard one of the billionaire’s yachts – including private chef and 24-hour hospitality. The cost of the trip is said to have been more than half a million dollars – two years’ salary from Thomas. In fact, the judge didn’t pay a single penny.

The holiday trip was a gift. A donation that Thomas never stated in his financial reports. Neither do all of Crow’s other invitations and amenities. Thomas is said to have been a permanent guest on the billionaire’s private jet. He is also said to have used the Republican’s luxury yacht not only once for relaxation.

In addition, Thomas is said to have vacationed more often in a luxury Crow resort in the Adirondack Mountains, a mountain range in the US state of New York. Likewise on a sprawling Crows ranch in Texas.

Because it wasn’t a donation, just vacation trips with “close personal friends” – that’s how Thomas explains why he kept quiet about all the luxury trips. At the beginning of his career, he even asked his colleagues at the Supreme Court. They had told him that he did not have to make the trips known because Crow was a friend and there was no conflict of interest with his work as a judge.

Real estate deals between Thomas and Crow

However, Thomas and Crow’s relationship isn’t limited to vacation trips together. Propublica then uncovered joint real estate transactions, from which Thomas in particular benefited financially – and which the judge also concealed. According to this, Thomas sold three properties in the US state of Georgia to Crow in 2014. The constitutional judge is said not to have stated this income in his financial reports.

As always, the others are to blame: CNN reports, with reference to Thomas’s immediate environment, that he allegedly always filled out his forms with the support of helpers and that not reporting the income was an accident.

Apparently one of many, because they too Washington Post has uncovered financial inconsistencies at Thomas: The 74-year-old Thomas is said to have reported rental income of hundreds of thousands of dollars for decades – from a real estate company that has not existed since 2006. Wife Ginni founded the company together with relatives, then dissolved it in 2006 and transferred it to a new company. However, Judge Thomas does not mention the new company in his annual financial statements.

Thomas’ expensive luxury trips and real estate deals with Harlan Crow are causing a stir, mainly because the billionaire has been trying for many years to shape the USA and its judicial system according to his wishes with large donations to the Republican Party.

An accusation that not only the silent luxury judge, but also Crow rejects. When asked by Propublica, he explained that he had shown the Thomas couple hospitality for many years. However, this hospitality does not differ from that which he grants to other “dear friends”. He was never concerned with influencing the judge’s decisions.

“We spoke to people who know Crow and Thomas and they told us that the two have become real friends,” Kaplan told reporter. The two arch-conservative men spent a lot of time together, but of course you don’t know “what they discussed”. No one can say exactly whether and how Crow may have influenced his friend. “But any political scientist will say that the people you spend a lot of time with inevitably influence your views.”

Thomas’ wife is a loyal Trump fan

Clarence Thomas has been one of the nine Supreme Court Justices since 1991, making him the longest-serving member of the current Supreme Court. Crow’s friendship also dates back to the 1990s: the two men have spent a lot of time together since then.

While no one knows what Thomas and Crow are talking about aboard the private jet or luxury yacht, it’s certain they’re on the same wavelength politically. Both are arch-conservative. Judge Thomas last year caused a stir with an explosive statement on the Supreme Court’s overturned abortion verdict in the case “Roe vs Wade”. The 74-year-old called for other fundamental judgments to be put to the test, such as the right to contraception, same-sex marriage or sex between same-sex partners.

Thomas insists that Crow has no control over his US Supreme Court decisions. But it is also clear that the judge, who, like everyone else in the USA, has been appointed for life, is now attracting attention for the second time with his personal dealings with the questionable variety. Because wife Ginni is considered a loyal Trump supporter and is said to have tried to take action against the result of the 2020 presidential election.

Even then, Thomas did what he obviously does best: he was silent.