LAT: (Clarence) Thomas' Acceptance of Gifts Tops Justices

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gifts31dec31,0,4218839,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts since joining the Supreme Court, from $1,200 worth of tires to valuable historical items and a $5,000 personal check to help pay a relative's education expenses.

The gifts included a Bible once owned by the 19th century author and abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass, which Thomas valued at $19,000, and a bust of President Lincoln valued at $15,000.

He also took a free trip aboard a private jet to the exclusive Bohemian Grove club in northern California -- arranged by a wealthy Texas real estate investor who has helped run an advocacy group that filed briefs with the Supreme Court.

Those and other gifts were disclosed by Thomas under a 1978 federal ethics law that requires high-ranking government officials, including the nine Supreme Court justices, to file a report each year that lists gifts, money and other items they have received.

[KittyWampus]

1. Ugh! So Sleazy...

[Crunchy Frog]

2. I didn't even know that sort of thing was legal.

At any rate, it's really disgusting.

[oldtime dfl_er]

3. I must admit I was surprised at their salary

The justices make less than $200,000 a year. I say raise their salaries and then make a law that they can't accept these kinds of gifts. Cheers to David Souter who turned down ALL offers...that's the only kind of judge who can be impartial to rich and poor alike.

[mrbassman03]

14. Yeah, less than $200,000 a year, such a tragedy...

Must be hard to get by on that, I picture cupboards full of mac and cheese. Polished, expensive, mahogany cupboards...

[bleedingheart]

19. the salary is kind of pathetic when you realize that many

gifted attorneys make six times that in private practice...and these men and women are the guardians of our nation's constitution and laws.

[flamingpie2500]

23. I would be extremely uncomfortable in front of a judge who was in it for

the money.

[Skittles]

25. SO F***ING WHAT

Supreme Court justices MAKE HISTORY - that should more than make up for their "pitiful" six figure salaries.

[shadowknows69]

31. uh..because it's sanctioned bribery

of the people that make history

[Orangepeel]

32. they are supposed to be the nine best judges in the country...

they aren't of course, but they are supposed to be. $200,000 is an awful lot of money for an average person to make, but it isn't a lot for people who are supposed to be at the very, very top of a profession.

[shadowknows69]

38. so pay them a better salary

or even better. Let's find nine people who want to do it for free just for the sake of justice. I'll do it.

[oneighty]

39. Seems to me

The constitution does NOT require supremes to have a law degree. Maybe we need a butcher a baker and a candlestick maker on the court, people of integrity and life experience and clear thinking based on right and wrong.

180

[notadmblnd]

4. What would he want theses items for?

The gifts included a Bible once owned by the 19th century author and abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass, which Thomas valued at $19,000, and a bust of President Lincoln valued at $15,000.

so he can spit or JO on them?

[saracat]

7. Because he can sell them or borrow against them as collateral.

[Erika]

5. I must agree with Henry Reid

Thomas is an embarrassment. An attorney friend of mine, who is Japanese, said Thomas should have never been appointed because he simply is not a legal scholar in any way. He was appointed for the purpose of getting a token conservative on the court. One who profited from affirmative action while wishing to deny that to others. Simply put, he is a black conservative -----.

To learn that he accepts lavish gifts from special interests is no surprise.

[NYC]

6. What a surprise!

And he seemed like such an ethical man.

There ought to be laws since people like Thomas can't control themselves.

[Erika]

8. No, he never seemed ethical

Ask Anita Hill. She is a respected law teacher who had the guts to speak against the conservative black token because she did not believe he had the ethics to be on the SC. His biggest resistance comes from those who believes he is in no way a legal scholar. His writings are a joke to the point he is almost mum in issuing them.

[NYC]

9. Sarcasm.

I remember Anita Hill. He is not ethical, and he is not what I would call "qualified". Was he appointed during Bush, Sr.?

[Divine Discontent]

10. you're remembering correctly

lucky us, huh?

[Divine Discontent]

13. DAMN!

what are the frickin odds of me getting a big black pubic hair in my coke while reading this thread?????????????


(forgive me, it's late)

[Sandpiper]

11. Least qualified member of the court

I can't stand Antonin Scalia, but as a legal mind, he runs rings around Thomas. Thomas is to Scalia what mini-me was to Dr. Evil.

Thomas never asks questions from the bench, and his written opinions are just watered down/dumbed down versions of Scalia opinions.

He was a token black justice, period.

Now it seems that his lack of qualifications is matched only by his fondness for graft.

And to think that this dilettante replaced a legal lion like Thurgood Marshall.


:puke:

[Erika]

12. Thomas is not considered a scholar

and that singulary shows his lack of depth and the reason so many hold him in contempt. He is and was a political token conservative black -----.

[yardwork]

28. I see Thomas as much worse than a token anything

Poppy Bush deliberately chose Thomas as a cynical gesture toward placing an unqualified knee-jerk conservative on the SC.

There were hundreds of better qualified conservative black scholars from which to chose. Poppy deliberately chose Thomas.

It was cynical. It was evil. It was typical of the way that the Bush crime family operates.

[mitchum]

15. Good Ol' Clarence is one sleazy motherfucker

[lawladyprof]

16. And, don't forget, the weecowboy admires him

Would the weecowboy even know competence if it bit him?

[Demeter]

17. Would He Know He Had Been Bit?

Immoral bastard impossible to shame.

[JoFerret]

18. Frederick Douglass!

....the man has no shame. What a total disgrace.

[bleedingheart]

20. I suspect Frederick Douglass would retch at the thought of

Thomas having his bible...

[Mr_Spock]

21. "Justice" Thomas is the most despicable person in this country.

I hate him.

[Edgewater_Joe]

22. I Bet Coca-Cola And Seymour Butts Are Very Happy

Who else do you think gives Har-ass anything?

[enough]

24. Just like some small-time mobster

snip>

Thomas reported receiving gifts nearly every year he has been on the high court. They included $100 worth of cigars from talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh, a $500 Stetson hat from the Houston Club, and another $150 worth of cigars from Kansas City businessman Tim Trabon, who said he had never met the justice. He also took a $375 "performance chip," a gift from a Corvette supplier he met at a rally, for the computer on his Corvette.

snip>

[shanti]

26. check out this quote:

"I don't see anything wrong in this. I don't see why it is inappropriate to get gifts from friends," said John C. Yoo, now a law professor at the UC Berkeley. "This reflects a bizarre effort to over-ethicize everyday life. If one of these people were to appear before the Supreme Court, Justice Thomas would recuse himself."

OVERETHICIZE, my ass!! wait, isn't this yoo guy the same person...

btw, this story is also on yahoo, for those who don't wish to subscribe to latimes


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2026&ncid=2026&e=1&u=/latimests/20041231/ts_latimes/justicethomasreportswealthofgifts

[yardwork]

27. Isn't Yoo the "legal scholar" who defended torture?

[shanti]

34. that's it

thank you! another one of the jackals. same shit...

[dkofos]

29. Is this not illegal??

IMPEACH the stupid fuck.
:mad: :mad: :mad:

[OldLeftieLawyer]

30. Want some fun?

Guess where Clarence's second (and current) wife still works?

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/121200-02.htm

[marew]

33. I think he's a sleazy jerk...

he's not worthy to clean Anita Hill's shoes. Has nothing to do with his race but with the company he keeps...Bush, Rove, Rumsfeld. I remember his hearings. I was appalled and stunned he was appointed. But then I was stunned and appalled Bush and his cronies got in. Remember when the repugs had that terrible book of lies written about Anita Hill. Several years later the author came out and said he couldn't live with the lies he had written about this woman and said the things he'd said about her weren't true. This is what we are dealing with. Christians---I don't think so. Why wasn't Thomas kicked off the supreme court in disgrace right then? He is dumb as a stump. Oh, that's right, I forgot, he kisses the right butts!

[oldtime dfl_er]

35. You got that right

Thomas is slime. Remember him playing the race card in those hearings, calling them a "high tech lynching", and playing cynically on the fear the committe had of being seen as racist? There was never a race issue, in fact Anita Hill is African American. But these ssleazeballs grab on and never let go. (does the name Dino Rossi come to mind???)

And the thing about accepting "gifts" is that, even if you aren't hearing a case to which a particular gift giver is a party, you as a compromised justice are more inclined -- let's say MUCH more inclined -- to side with the richer against the poorer. That way, you know your gifts will just keep on coming.

[Stinky The Clown]

36. Why is EVERY high level Repug a fucking bag man?

[No Exit]

37. Wow, a nice valuable conversation piece to put on his

dignified Supreme Court Justice's mantelpiece: a new set of tires.

These tires will, of course, become a treasured Thomas family heirloom.

[Supersedeas]

40. cronyism is alive and well for our next Chief Justice