Let’s be honest: most of them have crossed a legal or ethical line - the 435, the 100, the 9, the orange-haired man, his predecessor...
The issue is insulation from consequence. Without accountability, the system doesn’t correct itself. And without accountability, the status quo doesn’t change, and it continues to be the status quo.
Maybe it doesn't have to remain as such. Are you going to contact VA's Commonwealth Attorney about pursuing this case? I am, and the more people that do, the better. People have been keeping receipts on this guy so it's all lining up. Let's go for the win.
We have to be the change we want to see in the world, yes? I know it can be difficult to move through the feeling of repetitive defeat or powerlessness, when we see criminals openly running the WH, but for sure we can't change what we don't attempt to. So why not try?
The question is whether repeated failures to disclose income from real estate transactions and substantial gifts constitute conduct incompatible with the constitutional standard of “good Behaviour” required of Article III judges.
Under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, federal judges are legally required to file complete and accurate annual financial disclosure reports. These requirements are statutory mandates — not voluntary guidelines. Willful failure to disclose required information may trigger civil penalties and referral for investigation.
When nondisclosure involves significant financial transactions or high-value gifts, the issue is not clerical oversight; it raises potential violations of federal law and serious conflict-of-interest concerns.
Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution provides that civil officers of the United States may be impeached for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
The historical understanding of “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” includes abuses of official power, breaches of public trust, and conduct that undermines the integrity of the office — even absent a criminal conviction.
The Supreme Court possesses neither an internal enforcement mechanism nor an external ethics tribunal.
The Constitution therefore places the responsibility squarely with Congress to determine whether a Justice’s conduct has so compromised the integrity of the office that removal is warranted.
The legitimacy of the judiciary depends entirely on public confidence in its impartiality. Undisclosed financial relationships — particularly those involving wealthy individuals with ideological or political interests — create an appearance of dependency and influence incompatible with judicial independence.
Impeachment is not a partisan weapon.
It is a constitutional safeguard.
If statutory disclosure obligations were knowingly disregarded, Congress has both the authority and the duty to investigate fully and, where warranted, initiate impeachment proceedings.
Lifetime tenure was designed to protect judicial independence from political retaliation — not to insulate Justices from accountability under the law.
The integrity of the Court demands no less.
Congress should hold an investigation into his failures to to report his failures to report income from real estate and gifts
In my humble opinion, No justice sitting on the highest court in our nation should accept "gifts" from anyone. Another word for "gifts" is bribes made by the billionaires. Alito is another one that took bribes and wonder how many more that we don't know about.
How can any reasonable person believe that the court isn't being bought?
I found two links, (I didn't have to look for more)
I also wonder who paid off Kavanaugh's debts around the time of his confirmation hearing?
An excerpt from Mother Jones
In 2003, when President George W. Bush tapped him for a seat on the very powerful US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, Democrats were outraged. Not only had he helped Starr, the Whitewater independent counsel, try to bring down President Bill Clinton, but he’d also served on Bush’s legal team to challenge the outcome of the 2000 election at the Supreme Court. He also lacked significant legal experience outside of politics, having never tried a case, done any criminal practice at all, or served as a lower court judge. Kavanaugh was possibly the least experienced judicial nominee in 30 years. His nomination stalled.
But Bush nominated him again in 2003, 2004, 2005, and again in 2006, leading Sen. Dick Durbin to dub him the “Forrest Gump of Republican Politics.” On the last go-around, the American Bar Association downgraded their assessment of him to merely “qualified” for the job after interviewing a bunch of his former co-workers and judges he’d appeared before who took the opportunity to anonymously bash him as a condescending jerk who didn’t know his way around a courtroom. One judge he’d appeared before called him “sanctimonious” and said he demonstrated “experience on the level of an associate.” A lawyer said he’d “dissembled” in court, and another interviewee confirmed suspicions that he was a die-hard ideologue, noting that Kavanaugh was “immovable and very stubborn and frustrating to deal with on some issues.”
That confirmation meat-grinder might have been enough to persuade even the most hardened egomaniac to retreat to private practice, but Kavanaugh persisted. Eventually, on the fourth try, he finally landed on the DC Circuit. That same perseverance in the face of public shaming was on full display during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing, a debacle that also would have sent a lot of nominees fleeing to a quiet post in the ivory tower. Given all this, perhaps work as a judge was, in fact, his passion. As a Supreme Court justice, his salary is $268,300 a year, which in the elite rungs of the legal profession ain’t much. First-year associates in big law firms can command nearly such sums—the perennial argument for a huge increase in judicial salaries.
Kavanaugh, however, did not have to sacrifice his elite lifestyle—the country club, the Nats’ playoff tickets, the kids’ private schools, and whatnot—for this dream job, thanks to his family money. That’s why it’s improbable that he’s been bought off by the Koch Brothers: He doesn’t need the Koch brothers.
But there’s another major hole in the Kavanaugh conspiracy theory. None of its adherents seem to be able to explain why it would make any sense to bribe him.
Kavanaugh spent ten years as an appellate court judge before ascending to the Supreme Court. Bribing a federal circuit judge isn’t a very reliable way of getting the outcome you want in court. Appellate judges are randomly assigned to cases. They work in three-judge panels, and there’s always the possibility of an en banc rehearing or a Supreme Court ruling that can overturn them. Why would anyone illegally funnel money to an individual federal appellate judge? To do what? Reverse an EPA regulation? That’s probably why only two federal judges in the past 100 years have been impeached for bribery, and they were district court judges, where an individual judge has a lot more influence over a single case, criminal convictions, and potentially millions in verdicts.
A far more effective, and legal, strategy for swaying the courts in your favor would be to simply promote hundreds of predictably conservative judicial nominees at all levels who will vote exactly as you want in every single case, without needing cash under the table. And that’s exactly what corporate America has done over the past 40 years, funneling millions upon millions of dollars into groups like the Federalist Society and the Judicial Crisis Network to push reliable anti-regulatory, anti-abortion, pro-gun conservatives exactly like Kavanaugh on to the federal bench. Indeed, Donald Trump literally had 21 potential conservative candidates on his Supreme Court shortlist in 2016 that initially didn’t even include Kavanaugh.
Fueled by $22 million in anonymous donations, the Judicial Crisis Network pledged to spend as much as $10 million backing Kavanaugh’s confirmation. That sort of spending is another factor that helps keep the conspiracy theory alive. “There is an understandable concern about the influence of dark money on the federal judiciary,” says Jon Cooper, the Democratic activist who offered up the $5,000 to spur a Kavanaugh investigation.
Ohhh! Depressing links! Yikes! When I see my instinctual radar confirmed in print that 70% of the SCOTUS' rulings are in favor of corporations and big industry over an individual, somehow it becomes more disturbing. 😏
I guess that is why the Court fought so hard against having a Code of Ethics like our federal judges have.
Now they decided to have one but I doubt they will follow it. After all, a life time appointment means more to them since the "perks" are hard to refuse.
The only way to fix the Court us for us to win the House and Senate so we can impeach the worst of them which may send a message that to the rest of them. We also need to get rid of Citizens United.
But that means we all have to vote for that to happen.
This is from 2024 soo their net worth is even higher today, and don't forget that their spouses are also wealthy individually.
he nine justices on the Supreme Court are as close to sovereigns as one can get in America: they sit on high, don robes, serve until they die or abdicate, enjoy a government salary for life, abide by their own ethics code and proclaim definitive rulings that can upend our economy, our politics and our personal lives. To understand the high court and its role in society, we have to understand the people on it—and few things tell you more about someone than their finances.
Forbes dug deep into the checkbooks of the justices. There are some similarities: They’re all multimillionaires with nice homes and access to a generous pension plan that will keep them comfortable long after they retire. Most teach law school classes on the side, and side hustles as authors have helped some pad their accounts. But the ways each justice made the bulk of their money over the years range from private practice to lucky real estate investments to old-fashioned inheritance. And they keep their wealth invested in everything from run-of-the-mill mutual and index funds to vacation homes, Oklahoma mineral rights and shares in blue-chip stocks like Boeing and Raytheon, raising eyebrows about conflicts of interest. (For every justice, Forbes reached out to the Court for comment. A court spokesperson declined to comment.)
Added together, the Supreme Court is worth an estimated $64 million. Chief Justice John Roberts alone is responsible for nearly 40% of that sum: The wealthiest of all, he’s worth an estimated $25 million. He and the other five conservatives are on average over $5 million richer than the three liberal justices, who account for just 17% of its collective wealth.
Here’s a guide to every Supreme Court member’s money, spanning from way before they touched a torts textbook up to today.
I really can't believe they restricted gift giving for federal judges, but not for the justices. As you stated, the SCOTUS has the potential for a greater level of societal impact and for a long period of time, thus you'd think they'd be held to a much higher standard, ethically speaking, and precluded from buying stocks.
The wealth disparity between the conservative justices and the liberal justices is on its face disturbing, and would seem to indicate some backs of the justices are being scratched more than others. The question then becomes whose backs are those justices scratching in return?
I'll check out that website.
Thanks for the info. Clearly, some changes need to occur as to how the SCOTUS functions. It seems they know to protect the Fed. I believe it's because their own interests are at stake.
I agree. What sense does it make leaving the justices to police themselves? The laws make it too difficult to eliminate an unethical justice. There should be no hint of impropriety on the part of these justices, and yet we are far from that being the case. I totally understand your additional reference to the wives. Smh. Big money and personal interests have infected the collective mind of the court. However, I agree it started (at least) as far back as the SCOTUS' ruling to stop the 2000 FL recount that led to Bush becoming president over Gore, leading to the largest historical run of financial gains in the already-wealthiest individuals, that led to this very moment, imo. Of course, it's not the great wealth alone that is the problem. It's the mentality and ethical stance of who's holding that wealth and what it means to them and their view of self.
The challenge with impeachment is the very high bar required for conviction (2/3rd of the Senate members present and voting). In most any conceivable election outcome scenario, that will involve getting Republicans to cross party lines. As we saw with Trump’s two impeachment trials. The chances of that happening in sufficient numbers are slim and none.
Chris is right—the best place to pursue these charges is at the state level. He’s suggested this before (e.g. Minneapolis) but with no effect—at least so far. I’m not a lawyer but I think the problem is that a lot of state officials seem to be afraid of the Supremacy Clause, even though Chris has repeatedly done a solid job of explaining why it doesn’t apply. I’m hoping that if we can find one state official somewhere in the country with the courage to file charges, the floodgates might will open up significantly. Somebody just has to go first—it’s the classic “who’s going to bell the cat” problem.
Brilliant. This is exactly the kind of state focused initiative that's necessary to end run the federal autocracy. Even better if it can be pressed into local government consideration.
No person is more in need of taking down than Clarence fucking Thomas.
Time for a full court swarm to motivate Virginia into action.
After her response to the SOTU campaign rally by the WH incumbent (I can’t bring myself to call that person a president), Ms Spanberger appears well capable to sort out an Al Capone-like tax evasion scam!
So, I got stuck on the name “H. Wayne Huizenga”, and went down that rabbit hole…
Thomas, friends with H. Wayne Huizenga - who was friends with EPSTEIN! And, Huizenga is in the Epstein files, in emails from 2007, mentioning the yachts… that Thomas (I suppose could’ve vacationed on).
Doesn’t everything come back to Epstein? It’s no longer, “Six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon…”, it’s “three degrees from Epstein!”
Bottom Line: “Attorney General does not hold independent authority to bring income tax fraud prosecutions without a Governor’s request, which makes Descano the decision-maker who matters most.²⁰ His office address is 4110 Chain Bridge Road, Suite 114, Fairfax, VA 22030. The Virginia Attorney General is Jay Jones, reachable through the main line at 804-786-2071.²¹ Public pressure on both offices is appropriate, but Descano is where this case would actually be filed. If we want accountability, those are the offices to contact and those are the people to call.”
He sounds like someone who may be amenable to exactly this request:
"Steve Descano was sworn in as the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Fairfax County and the City of Fairfax in January 2020. He is a veteran, former federal prosecutor, husband, and father.
Since taking office, Steve has undertaken a reform agenda aimed at mitigating racial and socioeconomic disparities and countering mass incarceration in Fairfax County’s Justice System - while keeping our communities safe. Under his leadership, the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney has stopped requesting cash bail, implemented a new sentencing policy to address mass incarceration, and restructured the office to produce accountability around reforms, among other initiatives.
A West Point graduate, Steve served as a U.S. Army Aviation Officer before putting himself through law school and becoming a federal prosecutor. He served in the Obama Administration’s Justice Department for six years, specializing in the prosecution of complex financial crimes.
After his work in the Justice Department, Steve was selected as the Fairfax County NAACP’s first nominee to the County’s Police Civilian Review Panel. He also worked to help families throughout the region as the Chief Operations Officer and General Counsel at Paragon Autism Services, Northern Virginia’s premiere provider of Applied Behavior Analysis therapy for children with Autism."
Just fyi - that sentiment has already been bandied about in recent days with regard to pedophiles and sex traffickers perhaps going down for financial reasons, like Capone, and not for their more injurious crimes. Just thought you might want to know.
Trump could then appoint a younger justice to who could make our lives miserable for a long time. Is it too crazy to consider letting Thomas age out at this point? Or should we roll the dice with a possibly new MAGA appointee? 🤯
Thanks for this, Chris. I wouldn't have ever thought of any of this and I certainly didn't know most of it until reading your substack. One of your readers commented on how all roads lead back to Epstein after the previous reader commented on the yacht owner being a friend of Epstein. Yes, of course Clarence Thomas is part of "the Epstein Class." These are the people who have all the money and power; they're also big political donors, thereby rigging elections, and they lack empathy or any feelings at all for other people. Look at the people in the Files. There are even some women in these files. Some of them might not have personally used the children and young women that were caught in Epstein's web, but they all share the same personality traits: overarching ambition, lack of empathy, love of money, narcissism, need for power at any cost, a sense of superiority over others, and a lack of guilt when exploiting others. They all fit into the same mold.
That about sums it up, most unfortunately. I guess that adage stating that "power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely" (Lord Acton) applies.
Another great article, Christopher. Look at all the conversation its sparked, always a good sign. You know what, everyone? At this point in history, I'll be happy if they were charged with shoplifting, or jaywalking. Perhaps just for today, at a low point. Tomorrow, off with their heads! Ha..Accountability has been so far out of reach.
Use the web email that Pteradactyl-Cape above offered. It's really easy. Just ask the Commonwealth Attorney to open a case on Thomas for several years of tax evasion and give him the link to Christopher's article. Easy Peezy. The law is the law and no one should be above it.
WE, The People, deserve total transparency from those who hold our fate in their hands, potentially for decades of our lives.
Use the web email that Pteradactyl-Cape above offered. It's really easy. Just ask the Commonwealth Attorney to open a case on Thomas for several years of tax evasion and give him the link to Christopher's article. Easy Peezy. The law is the law and no one should be above it.
WE, The People, deserve total transparency from those who hold our fate in their hands, potentially for decades of our lives.
It's a lynching, to quote the disgusting judge in question.
"No other Justice has accepted anything close to $4.2 million in undisclosed benefits from billionaires.³ You cannot claim you are being singled out when nobody else did what you did."
"When the giver routes payments through a business entity, takes tax deductions, and entered the recipient’s life only after the recipient gained power over matters affecting the giver’s fortune, the friendship label does not convert millions in benefits into a tax-free zone."
This brings to mind a related topic I've been mulling over for some time: it appears to me that at least some of the recent right-wing appointees to SCOTUS may have lied to the Senate in their confirmation hearings. They were all asked generally about stare decisis (respect for legal precedent) - and specifically about Roe v Wade. They all assured the Senate that Roe was 'settled law.' The Roberts Court has presided over an undoing of past rulings at a scale - and on a partisan basis - that is breathtaking.
I understand that you're not a lawyer, but wouldn't it be lovely if we could remove and replace the worst of the Justices?
Is a similar strategy applicable to Justice Alito?
Of course the charging prosecutor would need spheres of steel to proceed…every MAGA wingnut with an AR would be foaming at the mouth! But if successful he/she would join John Adams, Atticus Finch, Perry Mason and Clarence Darrow in the legal profession’s hall of heroes, real or fictional.
Let’s be honest: most of them have crossed a legal or ethical line - the 435, the 100, the 9, the orange-haired man, his predecessor...
The issue is insulation from consequence. Without accountability, the system doesn’t correct itself. And without accountability, the status quo doesn’t change, and it continues to be the status quo.
Maybe it doesn't have to remain as such. Are you going to contact VA's Commonwealth Attorney about pursuing this case? I am, and the more people that do, the better. People have been keeping receipts on this guy so it's all lining up. Let's go for the win.
We have to be the change we want to see in the world, yes? I know it can be difficult to move through the feeling of repetitive defeat or powerlessness, when we see criminals openly running the WH, but for sure we can't change what we don't attempt to. So why not try?
Exactly. Don't comment on Substack until AFTER you've picked up the phone.
Chris is giving us a way forward, it's up to us to take the actions that convince the politicians that there's a sea change they have to listen to.
Steve Descano phone: 703-246-2776
Web email: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/contact/Mobile/MailForm.aspx?agId=82
Should congress impeach Justice Clarence Thomas:
The question is whether repeated failures to disclose income from real estate transactions and substantial gifts constitute conduct incompatible with the constitutional standard of “good Behaviour” required of Article III judges.
Under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, federal judges are legally required to file complete and accurate annual financial disclosure reports. These requirements are statutory mandates — not voluntary guidelines. Willful failure to disclose required information may trigger civil penalties and referral for investigation.
When nondisclosure involves significant financial transactions or high-value gifts, the issue is not clerical oversight; it raises potential violations of federal law and serious conflict-of-interest concerns.
Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution provides that civil officers of the United States may be impeached for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
The historical understanding of “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” includes abuses of official power, breaches of public trust, and conduct that undermines the integrity of the office — even absent a criminal conviction.
The Supreme Court possesses neither an internal enforcement mechanism nor an external ethics tribunal.
The Constitution therefore places the responsibility squarely with Congress to determine whether a Justice’s conduct has so compromised the integrity of the office that removal is warranted.
The legitimacy of the judiciary depends entirely on public confidence in its impartiality. Undisclosed financial relationships — particularly those involving wealthy individuals with ideological or political interests — create an appearance of dependency and influence incompatible with judicial independence.
Impeachment is not a partisan weapon.
It is a constitutional safeguard.
If statutory disclosure obligations were knowingly disregarded, Congress has both the authority and the duty to investigate fully and, where warranted, initiate impeachment proceedings.
Lifetime tenure was designed to protect judicial independence from political retaliation — not to insulate Justices from accountability under the law.
The integrity of the Court demands no less.
Congress should hold an investigation into his failures to to report his failures to report income from real estate and gifts
He like trump is not above the law
In my humble opinion, No justice sitting on the highest court in our nation should accept "gifts" from anyone. Another word for "gifts" is bribes made by the billionaires. Alito is another one that took bribes and wonder how many more that we don't know about.
How can any reasonable person believe that the court isn't being bought?
I found two links, (I didn't have to look for more)
That everyone should read about the Court.
https://www.theusconstitution.org/think_tank/moneyed-interests-still-prevail-at-the-supreme-court-2024-2025-term/
https://www.theusconstitution.org/series/chamber-study/
I also wonder who paid off Kavanaugh's debts around the time of his confirmation hearing?
An excerpt from Mother Jones
In 2003, when President George W. Bush tapped him for a seat on the very powerful US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, Democrats were outraged. Not only had he helped Starr, the Whitewater independent counsel, try to bring down President Bill Clinton, but he’d also served on Bush’s legal team to challenge the outcome of the 2000 election at the Supreme Court. He also lacked significant legal experience outside of politics, having never tried a case, done any criminal practice at all, or served as a lower court judge. Kavanaugh was possibly the least experienced judicial nominee in 30 years. His nomination stalled.
But Bush nominated him again in 2003, 2004, 2005, and again in 2006, leading Sen. Dick Durbin to dub him the “Forrest Gump of Republican Politics.” On the last go-around, the American Bar Association downgraded their assessment of him to merely “qualified” for the job after interviewing a bunch of his former co-workers and judges he’d appeared before who took the opportunity to anonymously bash him as a condescending jerk who didn’t know his way around a courtroom. One judge he’d appeared before called him “sanctimonious” and said he demonstrated “experience on the level of an associate.” A lawyer said he’d “dissembled” in court, and another interviewee confirmed suspicions that he was a die-hard ideologue, noting that Kavanaugh was “immovable and very stubborn and frustrating to deal with on some issues.”
That confirmation meat-grinder might have been enough to persuade even the most hardened egomaniac to retreat to private practice, but Kavanaugh persisted. Eventually, on the fourth try, he finally landed on the DC Circuit. That same perseverance in the face of public shaming was on full display during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing, a debacle that also would have sent a lot of nominees fleeing to a quiet post in the ivory tower. Given all this, perhaps work as a judge was, in fact, his passion. As a Supreme Court justice, his salary is $268,300 a year, which in the elite rungs of the legal profession ain’t much. First-year associates in big law firms can command nearly such sums—the perennial argument for a huge increase in judicial salaries.
Kavanaugh, however, did not have to sacrifice his elite lifestyle—the country club, the Nats’ playoff tickets, the kids’ private schools, and whatnot—for this dream job, thanks to his family money. That’s why it’s improbable that he’s been bought off by the Koch Brothers: He doesn’t need the Koch brothers.
But there’s another major hole in the Kavanaugh conspiracy theory. None of its adherents seem to be able to explain why it would make any sense to bribe him.
Kavanaugh spent ten years as an appellate court judge before ascending to the Supreme Court. Bribing a federal circuit judge isn’t a very reliable way of getting the outcome you want in court. Appellate judges are randomly assigned to cases. They work in three-judge panels, and there’s always the possibility of an en banc rehearing or a Supreme Court ruling that can overturn them. Why would anyone illegally funnel money to an individual federal appellate judge? To do what? Reverse an EPA regulation? That’s probably why only two federal judges in the past 100 years have been impeached for bribery, and they were district court judges, where an individual judge has a lot more influence over a single case, criminal convictions, and potentially millions in verdicts.
A far more effective, and legal, strategy for swaying the courts in your favor would be to simply promote hundreds of predictably conservative judicial nominees at all levels who will vote exactly as you want in every single case, without needing cash under the table. And that’s exactly what corporate America has done over the past 40 years, funneling millions upon millions of dollars into groups like the Federalist Society and the Judicial Crisis Network to push reliable anti-regulatory, anti-abortion, pro-gun conservatives exactly like Kavanaugh on to the federal bench. Indeed, Donald Trump literally had 21 potential conservative candidates on his Supreme Court shortlist in 2016 that initially didn’t even include Kavanaugh.
Fueled by $22 million in anonymous donations, the Judicial Crisis Network pledged to spend as much as $10 million backing Kavanaugh’s confirmation. That sort of spending is another factor that helps keep the conspiracy theory alive. “There is an understandable concern about the influence of dark money on the federal judiciary,” says Jon Cooper, the Democratic activist who offered up the $5,000 to spur a Kavanaugh investigation.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/09/heres-the-truth-about-brett-kavanaughs-finances/
Ohhh! Depressing links! Yikes! When I see my instinctual radar confirmed in print that 70% of the SCOTUS' rulings are in favor of corporations and big industry over an individual, somehow it becomes more disturbing. 😏
I know, Christy B.
I guess that is why the Court fought so hard against having a Code of Ethics like our federal judges have.
Now they decided to have one but I doubt they will follow it. After all, a life time appointment means more to them since the "perks" are hard to refuse.
The only way to fix the Court us for us to win the House and Senate so we can impeach the worst of them which may send a message that to the rest of them. We also need to get rid of Citizens United.
But that means we all have to vote for that to happen.
This is from 2024 soo their net worth is even higher today, and don't forget that their spouses are also wealthy individually.
he nine justices on the Supreme Court are as close to sovereigns as one can get in America: they sit on high, don robes, serve until they die or abdicate, enjoy a government salary for life, abide by their own ethics code and proclaim definitive rulings that can upend our economy, our politics and our personal lives. To understand the high court and its role in society, we have to understand the people on it—and few things tell you more about someone than their finances.
Forbes dug deep into the checkbooks of the justices. There are some similarities: They’re all multimillionaires with nice homes and access to a generous pension plan that will keep them comfortable long after they retire. Most teach law school classes on the side, and side hustles as authors have helped some pad their accounts. But the ways each justice made the bulk of their money over the years range from private practice to lucky real estate investments to old-fashioned inheritance. And they keep their wealth invested in everything from run-of-the-mill mutual and index funds to vacation homes, Oklahoma mineral rights and shares in blue-chip stocks like Boeing and Raytheon, raising eyebrows about conflicts of interest. (For every justice, Forbes reached out to the Court for comment. A court spokesperson declined to comment.)
Added together, the Supreme Court is worth an estimated $64 million. Chief Justice John Roberts alone is responsible for nearly 40% of that sum: The wealthiest of all, he’s worth an estimated $25 million. He and the other five conservatives are on average over $5 million richer than the three liberal justices, who account for just 17% of its collective wealth.
Here’s a guide to every Supreme Court member’s money, spanning from way before they touched a torts textbook up to today.
Justices are listed in order of seniority.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kylemullins/2024/02/15/the-net-worth-of-every-supreme-court-justice/
I really can't believe they restricted gift giving for federal judges, but not for the justices. As you stated, the SCOTUS has the potential for a greater level of societal impact and for a long period of time, thus you'd think they'd be held to a much higher standard, ethically speaking, and precluded from buying stocks.
The wealth disparity between the conservative justices and the liberal justices is on its face disturbing, and would seem to indicate some backs of the justices are being scratched more than others. The question then becomes whose backs are those justices scratching in return?
I'll check out that website.
Thanks for the info. Clearly, some changes need to occur as to how the SCOTUS functions. It seems they know to protect the Fed. I believe it's because their own interests are at stake.
Since they don’t recuse themselves from any cases that they (or their wives) have any interest in they want to keep the Billionaires happy.
In my opinion the court has been biased since Reagan and Bush father and son haven’t helped.
I agree. What sense does it make leaving the justices to police themselves? The laws make it too difficult to eliminate an unethical justice. There should be no hint of impropriety on the part of these justices, and yet we are far from that being the case. I totally understand your additional reference to the wives. Smh. Big money and personal interests have infected the collective mind of the court. However, I agree it started (at least) as far back as the SCOTUS' ruling to stop the 2000 FL recount that led to Bush becoming president over Gore, leading to the largest historical run of financial gains in the already-wealthiest individuals, that led to this very moment, imo. Of course, it's not the great wealth alone that is the problem. It's the mentality and ethical stance of who's holding that wealth and what it means to them and their view of self.
If we are stuck waiting for Congress to take action, we might as well throw in the towel!
If we throw in the towel then we give up and deserve what happens next.
If we don't fight we can't win!
I refuse to give up and will fight until I die.
The challenge with impeachment is the very high bar required for conviction (2/3rd of the Senate members present and voting). In most any conceivable election outcome scenario, that will involve getting Republicans to cross party lines. As we saw with Trump’s two impeachment trials. The chances of that happening in sufficient numbers are slim and none.
Chris is right—the best place to pursue these charges is at the state level. He’s suggested this before (e.g. Minneapolis) but with no effect—at least so far. I’m not a lawyer but I think the problem is that a lot of state officials seem to be afraid of the Supremacy Clause, even though Chris has repeatedly done a solid job of explaining why it doesn’t apply. I’m hoping that if we can find one state official somewhere in the country with the courage to file charges, the floodgates might will open up significantly. Somebody just has to go first—it’s the classic “who’s going to bell the cat” problem.
They got Al Capone for tax evasion. Why not Clarence Thomas?
Damn, I wish I would've made that the article title…
Over $4 million in unclaimed income from his benefactor Harlan Crow! And I’m sure an investigation will show far far more…
Brilliant. This is exactly the kind of state focused initiative that's necessary to end run the federal autocracy. Even better if it can be pressed into local government consideration.
No person is more in need of taking down than Clarence fucking Thomas.
Time for a full court swarm to motivate Virginia into action.
Abigail Spanberger? What a wonderful way for her to start!
After her response to the SOTU campaign rally by the WH incumbent (I can’t bring myself to call that person a president), Ms Spanberger appears well capable to sort out an Al Capone-like tax evasion scam!
Did you call?
Steve Descano phone: 703-246-2776
Web email: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/contact/Mobile/MailForm.aspx?agId=82
So, I got stuck on the name “H. Wayne Huizenga”, and went down that rabbit hole…
Thomas, friends with H. Wayne Huizenga - who was friends with EPSTEIN! And, Huizenga is in the Epstein files, in emails from 2007, mentioning the yachts… that Thomas (I suppose could’ve vacationed on).
Doesn’t everything come back to Epstein? It’s no longer, “Six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon…”, it’s “three degrees from Epstein!”
That’s exactly what I was telling my husband the other day. All roads lead back to Epstein.
Please type Epstein/Trump (I usually say loser!)
Bottom Line: “Attorney General does not hold independent authority to bring income tax fraud prosecutions without a Governor’s request, which makes Descano the decision-maker who matters most.²⁰ His office address is 4110 Chain Bridge Road, Suite 114, Fairfax, VA 22030. The Virginia Attorney General is Jay Jones, reachable through the main line at 804-786-2071.²¹ Public pressure on both offices is appropriate, but Descano is where this case would actually be filed. If we want accountability, those are the offices to contact and those are the people to call.”
Chris, would you put a BLUF up top so people know who to call at what #?
Steve Descano phone: 703-246-2776
Web email: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/contact/Mobile/MailForm.aspx?agId=82
He sounds like someone who may be amenable to exactly this request:
"Steve Descano was sworn in as the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Fairfax County and the City of Fairfax in January 2020. He is a veteran, former federal prosecutor, husband, and father.
Since taking office, Steve has undertaken a reform agenda aimed at mitigating racial and socioeconomic disparities and countering mass incarceration in Fairfax County’s Justice System - while keeping our communities safe. Under his leadership, the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney has stopped requesting cash bail, implemented a new sentencing policy to address mass incarceration, and restructured the office to produce accountability around reforms, among other initiatives.
A West Point graduate, Steve served as a U.S. Army Aviation Officer before putting himself through law school and becoming a federal prosecutor. He served in the Obama Administration’s Justice Department for six years, specializing in the prosecution of complex financial crimes.
After his work in the Justice Department, Steve was selected as the Fairfax County NAACP’s first nominee to the County’s Police Civilian Review Panel. He also worked to help families throughout the region as the Chief Operations Officer and General Counsel at Paragon Autism Services, Northern Virginia’s premiere provider of Applied Behavior Analysis therapy for children with Autism."
Good call, I'll do that now 👍
Just fyi - that sentiment has already been bandied about in recent days with regard to pedophiles and sex traffickers perhaps going down for financial reasons, like Capone, and not for their more injurious crimes. Just thought you might want to know.
I just sent off a request to Commonwealth Attorney Descano of Fairfax County, VA via that Web email you provided. That made it really easy. Thank you!
I don’t understand why no one in Virginia law enforcement has called this out?!
When justice comes it will be so sweet!
I just dread that Trump will still be in office should Thomas be impeached.
Or otherwise taken down, legally.
Trump could then appoint a younger justice to who could make our lives miserable for a long time. Is it too crazy to consider letting Thomas age out at this point? Or should we roll the dice with a possibly new MAGA appointee? 🤯
Thank you for this bio, I was wondering if this was someone who we have a chance getting through to. Sounds like a possibility.
Thanks for this, Chris. I wouldn't have ever thought of any of this and I certainly didn't know most of it until reading your substack. One of your readers commented on how all roads lead back to Epstein after the previous reader commented on the yacht owner being a friend of Epstein. Yes, of course Clarence Thomas is part of "the Epstein Class." These are the people who have all the money and power; they're also big political donors, thereby rigging elections, and they lack empathy or any feelings at all for other people. Look at the people in the Files. There are even some women in these files. Some of them might not have personally used the children and young women that were caught in Epstein's web, but they all share the same personality traits: overarching ambition, lack of empathy, love of money, narcissism, need for power at any cost, a sense of superiority over others, and a lack of guilt when exploiting others. They all fit into the same mold.
That about sums it up, most unfortunately. I guess that adage stating that "power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely" (Lord Acton) applies.
Another great article, Christopher. Look at all the conversation its sparked, always a good sign. You know what, everyone? At this point in history, I'll be happy if they were charged with shoplifting, or jaywalking. Perhaps just for today, at a low point. Tomorrow, off with their heads! Ha..Accountability has been so far out of reach.
Use the web email that Pteradactyl-Cape above offered. It's really easy. Just ask the Commonwealth Attorney to open a case on Thomas for several years of tax evasion and give him the link to Christopher's article. Easy Peezy. The law is the law and no one should be above it.
WE, The People, deserve total transparency from those who hold our fate in their hands, potentially for decades of our lives.
Thank you, for your comment, but also the education. I appreciate your reaching out. I will do it!
That's great! 🇺🇲
Use the web email that Pteradactyl-Cape above offered. It's really easy. Just ask the Commonwealth Attorney to open a case on Thomas for several years of tax evasion and give him the link to Christopher's article. Easy Peezy. The law is the law and no one should be above it.
WE, The People, deserve total transparency from those who hold our fate in their hands, potentially for decades of our lives.
Steve Descano phone: 703-246-2776
Web email: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/contact/Mobile/MailForm.aspx?agId=82
Impeach ,remove,charge with crime .I don’t believe he can play the race card this time like he did at his confirmation.
It's a lynching, to quote the disgusting judge in question.
"No other Justice has accepted anything close to $4.2 million in undisclosed benefits from billionaires.³ You cannot claim you are being singled out when nobody else did what you did."
"When the giver routes payments through a business entity, takes tax deductions, and entered the recipient’s life only after the recipient gained power over matters affecting the giver’s fortune, the friendship label does not convert millions in benefits into a tax-free zone."
Christopher
You are a hero. This contemptible thief needs prosecution in Virginia RIGHT NOW
Steve Descano phone: 703-246-2776
Web email: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/contact/Mobile/MailForm.aspx?agId=82
I hope so! We need to get him OFF the bench!!!
Well done, Chris!
This brings to mind a related topic I've been mulling over for some time: it appears to me that at least some of the recent right-wing appointees to SCOTUS may have lied to the Senate in their confirmation hearings. They were all asked generally about stare decisis (respect for legal precedent) - and specifically about Roe v Wade. They all assured the Senate that Roe was 'settled law.' The Roberts Court has presided over an undoing of past rulings at a scale - and on a partisan basis - that is breathtaking.
I understand that you're not a lawyer, but wouldn't it be lovely if we could remove and replace the worst of the Justices?
BTW, Michael Podhorzer has done some brilliant analysis of SCOTUS decisions on his Substack: https://michaelpodhorzer.substack.com/p/this-is-not-a-year-end-appeal?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web. Anyone interested in exploring further might be interested in some of the great books that have been published on this topic:
Steve Vladeck: The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic
Leah Litman: Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes
Lisa Graves: Without Precedent: How Chief Justice Roberts and His Accomplices Rewrote the Constitution and Dismantled Our Rights
As related to soft secession, I think blue states have a real basis for declaring this Court illegitimate.
With love and sincere gratitude for all you're doing, and all that you inspire and help us to do.
💙💪💯
Is a similar strategy applicable to Justice Alito?
Of course the charging prosecutor would need spheres of steel to proceed…every MAGA wingnut with an AR would be foaming at the mouth! But if successful he/she would join John Adams, Atticus Finch, Perry Mason and Clarence Darrow in the legal profession’s hall of heroes, real or fictional.