Democrats plan to subpoena wealthy benefactors of Supreme Court justices

Senate Democrats announced plans Monday to vote to subpoena a pair of wealthy conservatives and a judicial activista move that adds toKeeping up with politics is easy with The 5-Minute Fix Newsletter, in your inbox weekdays.

Senate Judiciary Committee leaders said they would vote as soon as Nov. 9 to authorize subpoenas for information from Texas billionaire Harlan Crow, a close friend and benefactor of Justice Clarence Thomas, and from Leonard Leo, the conservative judicial activist. Senate Democrats do not need the vote of any Republican on the committee to authorize the subpoenas. No separate vote by the full Senate is necessary.

Democratic lawmakers are seeking detailed information about the full extent of Crow’s gifts to Thomas. News reports about the justice’s failure over many years to report private jet travel, real estate deals and other gifts from Crow have prompted calls for the court to strengthen its ethics rules and for greater transparency about the justices’ potential conflicts and recusal decisions.

Federal ethics law requires top officials from all branches of government, including Supreme Court justices, to file annual disclosures listing investments, gifts and outside income. The justices are facing intense pressure from Democratic lawmakers and transparency advocates because they do not have an ethics policy that applies specifically to the nine justices.

“The Chief Justice could fix this problem today and adopt a binding code of conduct,” Durbin and Whitehouse added in their statement. “As long as he refuses to act, the Judiciary Committee will.”Separately, the Senate Finance Committee released a report last week after an investigation into a loan Thomas received from a friend to buy a luxury Prevost Marathon motor coach in 1999, a transaction that was first reported by the New York Times.

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