Where #ClarenceThomas Entered an Elite Circle & Opened a Door to the Court
The exclusive #HoratioAlgerAssociation brought the justice access to wealthy members & unreported V.I.P. treatment. He, in turn, offered another kind of #access.
By Abbie VanSickle & Steve Eder
#SCOTUS #Privilege #Power #Justice #Law
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/09/us/clarence-thomas-horatio-alger-association.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
“On Oct. 15, 1991, #ClarenceThomas secured his seat on the #SupremeCourt, a narrow victory after a bruising confirmation fight that left him isolated & disillusioned.”
(Ahem, old enough to remember that it was women who were the ones left feeling “isolated & disillusioned” post the Clarence Thomas confirmation.)
#SexualHarassment #SecondClassCitizens #AnitaHill #BelieveSurvivors #StrangeJustice #WomensRights #HumanRights
#HoratioAlgerAssociation #SCOTUS #Privilege #Power #Justice #Law
“Within months, the new justice enjoyed a far-warmer acceptance to a second exclusive club: the #HoratioAlgerAssociation of Distinguished Americans…
“If Justice Thomas’s life had unfolded as he had envisioned, his Horatio Alger induction might have been a celebration of his triumphs as a prosperous lawyer instead of a judge.
“But as HE tells it, after graduating from Yale Law School, he was turned down by a series of top law firms, rejections HE attributes to a perception that he was a token beneficiary of affirmative action. So began his GRUDGING path to a judicial career that brought him great prestige but only modest material #wealth after decades of financial struggle.…
“One entrepreneur called it ‘the closest thing to being knighted in the United States.’ At the same time, #Justice #ClarenceThomas has served as the group’s best messenger, meeting w/& mentoring the recipients of millions of dollars a year in #HoratioAlger college scholarships, many of whom come from backgrounds that mirror his own.…
“His friendships forged through Horatio Alger have brought him proximity to a lifestyle of unimaginable material privilege.
“Over the yrs, his #HoratioAlger friends have welcomed him at their vacation retreats, arranged VIP access to sporting events & invited him to their lavish parties. In 2004, he joined celebrities including Oprah Winfrey & Ed McMahon at a 3-day 70th birthday bash in MN for the (billionaire) industrialist Dennis Washington.
#ClarenceThomas #SCOTUS #Money #Privilege #Power #Justice #Law
“Several Horatio Alger friends also helped finance the marketing of a hagiographic documentary about #ClarenceThomas in the wake of an HBO film that had resurfaced #AnitaHill’s #SexualHarassment allegations against him during his confirmation.
#Whitewashing #SexualHarassment #AnitaHill #BelieveSurvivors #StrangeJustice #WomensRights #HumanRights #SCOTUS #Privilege #Power #Law #Greed
…“In recent months, #Justice #ClarenceThomas has faced scrutiny over…his relationship to #HarlanCrow, the Texas billionaire, whose largess over more than two decades has included vacations on a superyacht, private school tuition for the great-nephew the justice was raising, & the purchase of his mother’s Savannah, GA, home. None of this was reported by the justice, & the revelations have renewed calls for tighter #SupremeCourt #ethics rules.
“But a look at his tenure at the #HoratioAlger Assn, based on >2 dozen interviews & a review of public filings & internal docs, shows that #Justice Thomas has received benefits — many of them previously #unreported — from a broader cohort of #wealthy & #powerful friends. They have included major #donors to #conservative causes w/broad #policy & #political interests & much at stake in #SupremeCourt decisions….”
But they have already tightened ethics rules. That’s a major part of this story.
Thomas did not report those things because the previous rules didn’t require such reporting. The rules have since changed, and now they do.
It’s unfortunate that so many media outlets are missing that key part of this story.
None of that comes close to enough. He needs to be fined into povert and removed from the bench.
That’s a nice conspiracy theory you’ve got there.
Nonilex
volkris
sparseMatrix ✅✅✅ 📻
Grandpa Don