The recent news about Clarence Thomas’s corruption (I assume the reader will know of what I speak, so no link) reminded me of something that happened many years ago.
It seems there was a time when Republicans cared about the appearance of financial impropriety on the part of a Supreme Court justice, even when there was only a whiff of impropriety. Of course even then it was only when their target was a Democrat. Years ago there was a Supreme Court Justice named Abe Fortas. He was a liberal and a Jew, two strikes against him. LBJ nominated him for Chief Justice, but racist (and presumably anti-Semite) Strom Thurmond led the charge against him:
Fortas’s acceptance of $15,000 for nine speaking engagements at American University’s Washington College of Law became a source of controversy. The money had come not from the university but from private sources that represented business interests connected to 40 companies; Senator Strom Thurmond raised the idea that cases involving these companies might come to the Court, and Fortas might not be objective. While the fee was legal, the size of the fee raised much concern about the Court’s insulation from private interests, especially as it was funded by former clients and partners of Fortas. The $15,000 represented more than 40 percent of a Supreme Court justice’s salary at the time, and was seven times what any other American University seminar leader had ever been paid.
He was subsequently hounded off the court due to another “scandal” that paled into insignificance next to what Thomas has done.
You can argue that Fortas’s actions had the “appearance of impropriety”, but they never actually appeared as improper as what Thomas has done. But rest assured Thomas will remain on the court until he dies or chooses to leave at such time as he can be replaced by another fascist.
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