Clarence Thomas's Ethics Problems, Then and Now

[DearAbby]

Why now? What, after almost twenty years, prompted Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to leave a message on Brandeis professor Anita Hill’s office voicemail asking her to apologize for accusing Justice Thomas of sexual harassment during his 1991 confirmation hearings?

The timing was interesting. Ginni Thomas placed her call to Hill the morning after the New York Times reported that Virginia Thomas’s new Liberty Central organization accepted “large, unidentified contributions” totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. Those untraceable dollars came in the flood of right-wing funding following the Citizens United campaign finance decision, in which Justice Thomas voted with the majority. The Times reported that a wide range of legal ethicists said Liberty Central’s financing raises “knotty questions” about a conflict of interest for Justice Thomas.

Did this accusation heat up the rankling sense of persecution both Thomases feel about Hill’s old charge? To understand the connection between these two episodes it’s necessary to scrape away some of the mythology that has grown up around Thomas’s confirmation. The issue in 1991 wasn’t just the vicious and crude sexual bullying Hill ascribed to Thomas, who had been her boss in the Reagan administration’s Education Department and later at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The issue was perjury: was he lying under oath?

More:
http://www.thenation.com/article/155499/clarence-thomass-ethics-problems-then-and-now

[Angry Dragon]

1. Impeachment is called for

and Citizens United should be set aside until all information is gathered.
He also met with Koch brothers before the decision.

A truly vile man ............ mostly for lying under oath after being caught, but also
thinking he could be un-biased as a judge defining what laws others should live under.

[Bitwit1234]

3. Also Scalia went on a hunting trip with Cheney, a gift from the VP

before he ruled on the energy meeting case scheduled before the Supreme Court. What was that but a bribe.

[Staph]

2. Somehow I missed this during the confirmation hearing....

As a federal judge he sat on an appeals court review of the criminal conviction of Col. Oliver North, despite having spoken out in support of North’s actions in the Iran/Contra scandal.

How did the Senate ever confirm this sorry excuse of a jurist?

[DearAbby]

4. Yeah, there should be an in depth investigation

about these recent allegations regarding the meeting. Citizens united should be placed on hold. We should demand this.

[pansypoo53219]

5. i am going for red herring.

what is this a distraction for?

[rocktivity]

6. A perfect storm is gathering around SCOTUS

Four Women Agree About Justice Thomas

Scalia, Thomas have attended Koch bros. 'very private', 'secretive' meetings

Scalia and Thomas attended Koch Bros' secret strategy meetings: Call Senate and House!!!!

Now Mrs. Thomas' phone call makes more sense--she needed a weapon of mass distraction from all the bad press she knew was coming. If she could get the public hating Anita all over again (and also maybe generate a last-minute re-energizing of the Regthug base), maybe they wouldn't notice that hubby and Scalia did something totally impeachable.

:headbang:
rocktivity

[blm]

7. Can anyone argue credibly AGAINST scrutiny for Scalia and Thomas' political strategy meetings?

You'd have to to overlook an awful lot of unethical behavior to make that case.

[DearAbby]

8. ! n/t

[rocktivity]

9. If they attended those meetings PRIOR to the Citizens United ruling

It's a moot issue.

:headbang:
rocktivity

[felix_numinous]

10. kick!!!