Justice Clarence Thomas never disclosed three trips he took aboard Texas billionaire Harlan Crow’s private jet, according to documents obtained by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Documents obtained by committee Democrats list three previously unreported visits: one to a Montana city near Glacier National Park in 2017, another to his hometown of Savannah, Georgia, in March 2019 and another to Northern California in 2021.
The purpose of each trip was not immediately clear, and it was unclear why they weren’t listed in the judge’s disclosure documents, but all of the flights were for short stays, including two round trips that did not include overnight stays.
The revelation underscored how much Justice Thomas has relied on the generosity of his friends over the years and how he has consistently refused to report those connections.
Justice Thomas said he had been advised that he did not have to disclose personal entertainment gifts from friends who did not have cases before the Supreme Court.
The announcement is almost certain to ignite a fight over making the Supreme Court more transparent. Efforts by lawmakers to hold justices to the same ethical standards as the executive and legislative branches have failed. And even when the court released its first ethics code in the fall, under intense public scrutiny, experts were quick to point out that there was no enforcement mechanism or penalties for justices to violate it.
The trip revelations make it “absolutely clear that the Supreme Court needs an enforceable code of conduct because its justices continue to choose not to respond to the circumstances,” Sen. Richard J. Durbin, an Illinois Democrat and chairman of the committee, said in a statement.
Judge Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. His lawyer, Elliot S. Burke, did not answer questions about the details of the trip but defended it in a statement.
The information Crow provided to lawmakers “fell within the ‘personal entertainment exemption’ and was not required to be disclosed by Justice Thomas,” Burke said.
Burke was referring to an exception to federal disclosure requirements that was introduced by a rule change last March by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts that required judges to more fully disclose their activities, including unpaid travel, air travel and other gifts. All three trips took place before the rule change.
Burke said that since the rules were changed, “Justice Thomas has fully complied with the new discovery requirements.”
Crow’s spokesman, Michael Zona, said in a statement that Crow agreed to cooperate with the committee and provide “information requested by the committee going back seven years.”
The first trip took place from May 7-9, 2017, and involved flying on a private jet from St. Louis, Missouri, to Kalispell, Montana, and then to Dallas, Texas.
Judge Thomas spoke at the St. Louis Metropolitan Bar Association on Friday, May 5, 2017, but it is unclear what he was doing in Montana. Kalispell, a city of about 29,000 people in the northwestern part of the state, is known as a gateway to Glacier National Park, a mecca for fly fishing and hiking. It is unclear why he stopped in Dallas, where Crow lives.
The second trip took place on March 23, 2019, a day trip to Savannah, Georgia, where he grew up. His mother and several other relatives still remain in the area.
The third trip was also a one-day trip, flying round trip from Washington to San Jose, California on June 29, 2021. According to the Supreme Court’s website, the Supreme Court handed down at least three decisions that day, but at the time, the justices were allowed to work remotely during the height of the COVID-19 crisis and did not have to appear in court in person.
According to his latest financial disclosure report, released last week, Judge Thomas amended his earlier filings to include vacations he spent with Crowe in Bali, Indonesia, and at the Bohemian Grove, a secret men-only resort in Northern California, in 2019. Judge Thomas did not report any private jet flights or travel from his supporters for 2023, the year covered in his latest disclosures.
The one gift he mentioned was two photo albums worth $2,000 from Terrence and Barbara Giroux, former executive director of the Horatio Alger Society of American Notables, an exclusive group for society’s highest echelons.
Julie Tate contributed to the research.
