The Supreme Court is not the supermarket, asserts U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) — and SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas‘s “late-come effort” to report the largesse he’s received from billionaires won’t mop up his mess like a spaghetti sauce jar that smashed on the floor.
Whitehouse characterizes Thomas’s late reporting of a multitude of gifts — gifts that had already been exposed by journalists at ProPublica — as a “clean-up on aisle 3” attempt that won’t make the spill go away. Whitehouse still sees the stain and dangerous shards of glass everywhere, in the form of “massive, secret” billionaire influence.
If Thomas’s disclosure was meant to put the congressional hounds off his scent, the early response is that the dogs are still barking, led by Whitehouse who wrote today that Thomas’s tardy transparency “won’t deter us from fully investigating the massive, secret, right-wing billionaire influence in which this Court is enmired.”
This late-come effort at “Clean-up on Aisle Three” won’t deter us from fully investigating the massive, secret, right-wing billionaire influence in which this Court is enmired.https://t.co/bzIFAcrlju
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) August 31, 2023
Whitehouse has been unrelenting in his criticism of the nation’s highest court, especially its longest tenured Justice. In May he shared a scene below from the Senate that he captioned “Did you think I’d show up to the hearing on Supreme Court ethics without receipts?”
Did you think I’d show up to the hearing on Supreme Court ethics without receipts? pic.twitter.com/QjdF7T0rIl
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) May 2, 2023
Since then Whitehouse has continued to slam the ease with which billionaires have purchased access to the Supreme Court, even if it has not yet been proven they have been able to buy decisions.
In a series of tweets, Whitehouse plots out the alleged corruption of the Supreme Court by moneyed interests with the ballooning terror of an Edgar Allan Poe story. “Step by step… click, click, click,” he writes, describing the alleged illicit machinations behind the scenes. Whitehouse wants to dig up the floorboards, expose the beating heart.
Step by step, the corruption ratchet tightens — click, click, click… more secrecy… more influence… more corruption… more power.
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) August 31, 2023
Whitehouse even sounds like Poe in characterizing the alleged enemies of Democracy who buy influence, the “creepy billionaires,” in his words. Whitehouse excoriates the influence purchasers and their minions, calling their patriotism a charade.
“The creepy billionaires and their stooges may be the least patriotic people in our country,” he writes, “degrading our institutions for power suits them just fine.”
The creepy billionaires and their stooges may be the least patriotic people in our country: degrading our institutions for power suits them just fine.
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) August 30, 2023
“This Supreme Court has lost its ethical compass,” Whitehouse said in April, calling for an investigation after the initial Thomas revelations. “It’s no wonder that the American people are losing faith in the idea that they can get a fair shake before the nation’s highest court when they see a Supreme Court justice openly flouting basic disclosure rules in order to pal around with billionaires in secret.”
