Voters Want Clarence Thomas to Resign and Support a Supreme Court Code of Ethics
By Lew Blank and Abby Springs
Earlier this month, ProPublica released a bombshell report about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas: He has frequently taken luxury vacations with billionaire Harlan Crow, who has spent millions to push the U.S. to adopt more conservative policies.
Nearly every summer, Crow takes Thomas to his private resort in the Adirondack Mountains, and at one point chartered a private jet and yacht with Thomas to Indonesia. Thomas never disclosed these vacations, which, according to legal experts, likely violated federal ethics law.
In a new national survey, we find that likely voters believe these actions are unethical by a +44-point margin. This includes a strong majority of Democrats (82 percent) and Independents (65 percent), as well as a plurality of Republicans.
Thomas’ financial entanglements with Crow were not limited to luxury vacations. A week after the initial story broke, ProPublica released new information showing that in 2014, one of Crow’s companies purchased a string of properties that were owned by Thomas and his family for $133,363. Again, Thomas did not disclose this sale, even though federal disclosure law requires justices and other federal officials to disclose most real estate sales over $1,000.
By a +52-point margin, voters strongly agree that these actions were unethical. This includes 82 percent of Democrats, 69 percent of Independents, and 58 percent of Republicans.
In response to these ethical violations, voters — including Independents and Republicans — support action to hold Thomas accountable. We find that a +40-point margin of voters, including 85 percent of Democrats, 61 percent of Independents, and a plurality of Republicans (47 percent), think Congress should launch an ethics investigation into Thomas.
Data for Progress polling also finds that a majority of voters — 53 percent — want Thomas to resign from the court. This includes a majority of Democrats (77 percent) and half of Independents (50 percent). Only 55 percent of Republicans think that Thomas should not resign.
While all federal judges are required to follow a code of conduct, that ethics standard does not apply to the nine members of the Supreme Court. As a result, our nation’s highest court is the only agency of the federal government without an enforceable code of ethics.
Our polling finds that 77 percent of voters support requiring the Supreme Court to adopt a code of ethics. This includes a strong majority of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans.
Clarence Thomas is not the only Supreme Court justice to recently come under scrutiny for undisclosed business dealings. Nine days after Justice Neil Gorsuch was appointed to the Supreme Court, he finally sold a large piece of property that had been on the market for two years. The buyer? The chief executive of a law firm that regularly argues before the Supreme Court. However, Gorsuch did not identify the purchaser in his federal disclosure forms.
These revelations have renewed pressure on the court to follow an explicit code of conduct. While all nine justices have so far been resistant to the idea, voters clearly support ensuring that the Supreme Court justices are held to an ethical standard, and also support consequences for justices who fail to do so.
Lew Blank (@LewBlank) is a polling analyst at Data for Progress.
Abby Springs (@abby_springs) is the Press Secretary at Data for Progress.