You know, until now, stories about the largesse bestowed upon Justice Clarence Thomas almost sounds like he got appointed to the Court, ran the gantlet of his hearing, and then suddenly, he had all these friends he just wouldn't like to disappoint. And yet this story from ProPublica makes a reciprocal point--
There he was, just in debt as heck in 2000 (the year he would decide on Bush v, Gore, as a matter of fact, because that's not something I can refrain from mentioning) he looked over his public servant's salary and said out loud, "Gee, I sure hope my wealthy friends don't disappoint me or they may well get disappointed."
Genuinely:
After almost a decade on the court, Thomas had grown frustrated with his financial situation, according to friends. He had recently started raising his young grandnephew, and Thomas’ wife was soliciting advice on how to handle the new expenses. The month before, the justice had borrowed $267,000 from a friend to buy a high-end RV.
At the resort, Thomas gave a speech at an off-the-record conservative conference. He found himself seated next to a Republican member of Congress on the flight home. The two men talked, and the lawmaker left the conversation worried that Thomas might resign.
Congress should give Supreme Court justices a pay raise, Thomas told him. If lawmakers didn’t act, “one or more justices will leave soon” — maybe in the next year.
I'm not calling it extortion. All I'd like to point out is, his public servant salary got supplemented with a good deal of private money--and Thomas was very well aware what it was worth to his benefactors for them to do so.
2 comments:
They bought the mess our democracy has become.
Think of the kind of majority we would now have on the Supreme Court if the 2016 election had not been up to the electoral college but decided by the popular vote.
Oh, and big props for correctly citing 'ran the gantlet'. Few know the correct turn of phrase, and it annoyse me tremendously to constantly see it misquoted.
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