U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas allegedly accepted luxury travel gifts from Republican philanthropist Harlan Crow for more than two decades without reporting them to authorities.

According to ProPublica, a non-profit investigative journalism organization, Thomas traveled on Crowe’s yacht and private jet. The 2019 Indonesia trip detailed in the article may have cost more than $500,000, according to ProPublica.

ProPublica even highlighted the report: “The scope and frequency of his apparent gifts to Thomas are without precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Supreme Court justices, like other federal judges, are required to file annual reports detailing the gifts they receive. It was unclear why Thomas missed the trips, but according to a court policy guide seen by The Associated Press, food, lodging, or entertainment that qualifies as “the personal hospitality of any person” should not be reported if it takes place in the person’s presence. place of residence of the said person or his family. However, the exemption from reference does not apply to “transport and real estate”.

Last month, the federal judiciary tightened requirements for all judges, including Supreme Court justices, although overnight stays at private vacation homes owned by friends remain undisclosed.

Who is Judge Thomas

At age 74, Thomas, who is in his fourth decade on the U.S. Supreme Court, made sure to lay down his “rock” to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that established the right to abortion. He was placed on the court in the early 1990s by the then administration of George W. Bush.

Thomas spent his childhood in Georgia in poverty. He studied law and quickly switched to the judiciary.

In 1991, when he was married (that is, in his second marriage), a woman accused him of sexual harassment. At the trial, he was acquitted by a majority vote (52-48 votes). In 1997, he defended the “individual right” of Americans to bear arms at home. 10 years later, in 2017, he championed gun ownership outside the home, and in the US, one mass shooting followed another.

Regarding the death penalty, he demanded more executions with faster procedures.

Last year, the Washington Post reported that Thomas’s wife Ginny exchanged messages with John Eastman, a lawyer who worked with the former US president on a plan to block a transfer of power to Joe Biden. One read: “Most people know that Biden and the left are trying to pull off the biggest heist in history” and begged him to help “this great president” stop Joe Biden from taking office.

As a member of organizations seeking to abolish abortion rights in 2019, Thomas honored and praised a former Planned Parenthood employee who became an activist against the procedure, according to an extensive New Yorker report.

Source: AP, Washington Post, Reuters.