In a new ad, Alliance for Justice and Alliance for Justice Action Campaign call on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to resign for accepting gifts from Dallas billionaire Harlan Crow, which they said was unethical and illegal.
The 30-second ad, launched Tuesday by the progressive judicial group and its political arm, cites bombshell ProPublica reports that Thomas accepted expensive gifts from Crow, including luxury vacations, real estate deals and free tuition for a relative.
“The Supreme Court, it’s making the rules we all have to live by, but Justice Clarence Thomas doesn’t think the rules apply to him,” the narrator of the ad says. “While he is helping strike down abortion and voting rights and sensible gun laws, a far-right billionaire is rewarding him with secret, all-expense paid luxury vacations, unfair real estate deals and free tuition for a relative.”
“Justice Thomas, if you want to make the rules, you don’t get to break them,” the narrator continues.
The ad cites a Slate piece stating that Thomas “broke the law.”
The $400,000 campaign includes digital ads in the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and other outlets.
Rakim H.D. Brooks, the president of Alliance for Justice and Alliance for Justice Action Campaign, said in a news release that Thomas “called into question his life’s work” when he accepted the gifts from Crow.
“The Chief Justice is fond of saying that the justices are mere umpires, calling balls and strikes,” Brooks said. “Well now we know that at least one umpire has been taking kickbacks. No one should turn a blind eye to that level of corruption, particularly those sworn to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But in April, Thomas said that he didn’t think he needed to report gifts from his “dearest friends,” like Crow and his wife.
Democrats called for more oversight of the courts after the first ProPublica report on Thomas’ gifts came out in April. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called for “independent investigations.”
“This cries out for the kind of independent investigation that the Supreme Court — and only the Supreme Court, across the entire government — refuses to perform,” Whitehouse tweeted after the first report.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted at the time that Thomas should be impeached.
“This is beyond party or partisanship. This degree of corruption is shocking — almost cartoonish,” she wrote.