Dems out to get Clarence Thomas?

Dems out to get Clarence Thomas?

The timing seems a bit sketchy here. Just the other day it was announced that Obamacare would be up for review in the Supreme Court and would likely have an answer to its constitutionality before the 2012 election. The media were scratching their collective heads wondering why Obama’s Justice Department would allow it to be fast-tracked. A cynic might think it’s because they’re trying to get Justice Clarence Thomas either to recuse himself or to remove him somehow from the Court. This is from a story by Jessica Brady in Roll Call.

The group of 20 House Democrats led by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to the U.S. Judicial Conference, the governing body for federal courts, saying that Thomas has failed to report the income of his wife, Virginia, who earned $700,000 from 2003 to 2007 while working at the Heritage Foundation, according to news reports.

The letter came just days before the Supreme Court returns for the new session, during which it is expected to consider a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Obama administration’s sweeping health care law. With such high-profile issues on the horizon for the court, the lawmakers wrote, “it is vital that the Judicial Conference actively pursue any suspicious actions by Supreme Court Justices.”  Snip –

The lawmakers also suggest the issue should be taken up by Attorney General Eric Holder if the Judicial Conference determines that Thomas purposely failed to report his income and that of his wife. In its letter, the group cites a New York Times report that Thomas “benefited from use of a private yacht and airplane” owned by Texas real estate tycoon Harlan Crow but “failed to disclose this travel as a gift or travel reimbursement on his federal disclosure forms.”

Read it all here:

http://www.rollcall.com/news/democrats_call_for_inquiry_of_clarence_thomas-209072-1.html

The Left has been up in arms about Justice Thomas’s wife, Virginia, for a while since she is active in conservative issues, mainly trying to educate people in the broader philosophy of conservatism. You can read about what the Left has a problem with here: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20000473-503544.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody

Rick Moran of the American Thinker website thinks it rather ironic for any member of Congress to be pointing their “ethics” fingers at anyone.

The idea that members of congress are pointing the finger at anyone for ethics violations is absurd. How many members have their wives, girlfriends, and mistresses on their office payroll? How many use campaign contributions for personal matters? How many routinely sponsor or vote for legislation that directly benefits their investments and personal bottom line? How many eagerly take a proffered junket sponsored by a lobbyist to expensive vacation spots?

Virginia Thomas is an accomplished woman, an activist, and the head of a prominent conservative group, Liberty Central. Her political activism has nothing to do with her husband’s work on the bench. To hint otherwise is indicative of the hypocrisy of liberals when it comes to the spouses of prominent government officials. Mrs. Thomas has carved out her own professional life and the Dems don’t like it. If she was a liberal, advoacating liberal causes, do you really think there would be a problem?

Read it all here:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/10/dems_call_for_ethics_probe_of_justice_thomas.html

I did find more information about Mrs. Thomas’ income and where or why that must be reported in some ethical way. This is from the Los Angeles Times.

In his 2009 disclosure, Justice Thomas also reported spousal income as “none.” Common Cause contends that Liberty Central paid Virginia Thomas an unknown salary that year.

Federal judges are bound by law to disclose the source of spousal income, according to Stephen Gillers, a professor at NYU School of Law. Thomas’ omission — which could be interpreted as a violation of that law — could lead to some form of penalty, Gillers said.

“It wasn’t a miscalculation; he simply omitted his wife’s source of income for six years, which is a rather dramatic omission,” Gillers said. “It could not have been an oversight.”

But Steven Lubet, an expert on judicial ethics at Northwestern University School of Law, said such an infraction was unlikely to result in a penalty. Although unfamiliar with the complaint about Thomas’ forms, Lubet said failure to disclose spousal income “is not a crime of any sort, but there is a potential civil penalty” for failing to follow the rules. He added: “I am not aware of a single case of a judge being penalized simply for this.”

The Supreme Court is “the only judicial body in the country that is not governed by a set of judicial ethical rules,” Gillers said.

You can read it all here:

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/22/nation/la-na-thomas-disclosure-20110122

If there is a problem, it seems Charlie Rangel or Maxine Waters should be able to help Justice Thomas with it since they are two of the most ethical members of Congress. Right, Charlie and Maxine? Pay attention to this as it relates to Obamacare – you know if the Left can’t win by merit they will win by cheating. What was Bill Clinton’s famous line when threatened with impeachment over the Monica Lewinsky catastrophe? “Well, we’ll just have to win.” Well, right back at ya, Lefties!

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