Donald Trump’s nominee has spoken out about the current media attacks on Justice Clarence Thomas and criticized the “potshots” he has taken on the Supreme Court.
Judge Amul Thapar, the pick of the federal appeals court in Cincinnati, rejected claims that one of America’s top powerhouse minds acted improperly after failing to disclose allegedly lavish gifts from a billionaire friend.
Judges are identical to another person. We have a diverse group of contributors and the contributors don’t affect the way we do our work,” Thapar told CNN.
Thapar promoted a brand new e-book analyzing the decisions of Clarence Thomas throughout his time as a Supreme Court justice.
The 54-year-old lawyer made his remarks during a PR blitz for his new e-book about Thomas, People’s Justice.
Liberal critics accuse the 75-year-old of having a highly inflexible method of constitutional interpretation that drives his conservative statements on abortion and gun rights.
But Thapar said there was no evidence Thomas’ ties to Dallas real estate mogul Harlan Crowe influenced his choice.
“You can judge their works and what they’re doing by what they’ve done in the past,” he said. “And if it’s consistent, then it’s hard to say that anything has affected them.”
He added that it was “disappointing to see people who know better trying to judge grass”.
Thapar writes in his new e-book that “by obfuscating or misrepresenting his views, Justice Thomas’ critics argue that his originalism favors the rich over the poor, the strong over the weak, and corporations over consumers.
“They have called Judge Thomas ‘the most cruel court’, ‘stupid’ and even ‘Uncle Tom’, a traitor to his race.”
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has gone on weekly vacations with property tycoon Harlan Crowe, as well as a trip to Indonesia on a superyacht and private jet. He responded by pointing to the “personal hospitality” exception to these guidelines
Crow called Thomas a dear friend and got to know him after he joined the Supreme Court. Crow is a real estate mogul from Dallas
Clarence Thomas has faced further criticism in recent weeks after it was revealed that he had failed to clear the hospitality of his wealthy friend Harlan Crowe.
He had boarded the billionaire’s superyacht to Indonesia, New Zealand and Greece and used his private jet without spending a penny.
The 74-year-old additionally spent the holidays at Harlan Crowe’s house in New York’s Adirondack Park.
The retreat offers boating and fishing alternatives as well as unique furnishings
Crowe additionally paid for the expensive private tutoring of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ grandfather, which the selectman did not specify.
A July 2009 financial institution statement confirmed that Crow’s company paid a monthly $6,000 bill for boarding faculty at Mark Martin’s residence.
Thomas had granted custody of the teenager at the time.
In April, he made the extraordinary claim that he and his spouse had been members of the Crow for more than twenty-five years.
“Like friends, we’ve taken them on several family outings in the more than a quarter century we’ve known them,” Thomas wrote.
He said he had taken the advice of others into account when deciding what to disclose under the indictments, and that Crowe himself had no circumstances in the court record.
The actual property tycoon has donated more than $10 million to Republican political teams.
He additionally donated half of $1,000,000 to a conservative lobby group based around Ginny Thomas.
Justice Girl has voiced her personal criticism of supporting Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse his loss in the 2020 presidential election.
Billionaire Harlan Crowe helped pay the tuition for a relative of Clarence Thomas. That included $6,000 a month in aid at Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia
The retreat offers boating and fishing alternatives as well as unique furnishings
Since then, the Supreme Court’s guidelines have been tightened, and judges are now required to declare gifts and freeholds.
But nothing has stopped a member of the nation’s highest court from revealing lavish travel gifts before.
The Ethics and Government Act of 1978 requires judges to file an annual disclosure if necessary to disclose gifts, but provides exceptions for “personal hospitality.”
Court filings cite the exception, but the language says it doesn’t apply to trips that substitute for industrial transportation, which appears to include a luxury jet or yacht.
“The exception for reporting personal gifts of hospitality is limited to food, lodging or entertainment and is intended to cover such personal, non-business gifts,” the statement said.
“Therefore, the reporting exemption does not include gifts other than food, lodging, or entertainment, such as transportation in a place of commercial transportation,” it said.
