Retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer called Justice Clarence Thomas a “man of integrity” as his former colleague faces an onslaught of criticism from Democrats over his relationship with a wealthy Republican donor.
Thomas has undergone criticism from mostly Democratic lawmakers and critics after ProPublica reported previously undisclosed trips and a 2014 property sale between Thomas and GOP donor Harlan Crow. During a federal circuit conference in Boston on Thursday, PBS NewsHour Supreme Court analyst Marcia Coyle asked Breyer how he sees Thomas and how a novel code of ethics could apply to the justices.
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“As far as I’m concerned, I sat next to him on the bench for 28 years. I like him. He’s a friend of mine. I’ve never seen him do anything underhanded or say anything underhanded,” Breyer said, according to Bloomberg Law.
“My personal point of view is he’s a man of integrity,” Breyer told attendees at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit event.
Although justices do consult the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, which was first introduced in 1973, they are not bound to the rules through any measures of accountability, such as punishments for violating the code.
Breyer noted that justices can make mistakes but pushed back on any notion that the Supreme Court doesn’t adhere to ethics standards. Should an issue come to light, Breyer said he sees it as “whatever applies to all the judges applies to me.”
The retired justice also repeated what numerous legal experts have expressed to the Washington Examiner, that an enforceable ethics code is difficult for the nine justices because they cannot be replaced if they disqualify themselves from hearing a case, unlike the abundance of replacement options for lower court judges.
Breyer, who was nominated by former President Bill Clinton, was assigned as the justice to handle matters stemming from the 1st Circuit, a court that he previously served on. Now, his successor, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, handles that role.
Jackson delivered remarks via video at the conference, lauding her predecessor.
Breyer’s comments come as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced he was inviting Chief Justice John Roberts to testify early next month regarding ethics reform inquiries at the Supreme Court. He noted that other justices could accept the invitation in place of Roberts, though none of the justices have responded to the request as of Friday afternoon.
During a September 2022 interview, Breyer spoke on the controversy surrounding Thomas’s spouse, Ginni Thomas, who is a prominent Republican activist and was rebuked by Democrats for her support of former President Donald Trump’s election fraud claims surrounding the 2020 election.
Asked whether he believed Ginni Thomas’s political activism was damaging to the reputation of the court, Breyer said: “I don’t go through that in that I strongly believe that women who are wives, including wives of Supreme Court justices, have to make the decisions about how to lead their lives, careers, what kind of career, etc., for themselves.”
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Calls from some Democratic lawmakers for heightened ethics rules coincide with the Judicial Conference’s recent update for all federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, to disclose additional information surrounding gifts, such as stays at commercial properties and other hospitable offerings. Reports of Crow’s “hospitality” to Thomas, which took place in years past, emerged just days after the new disclosure requirements were made public.
Thomas responded to the ProPublica report about his travels with Crow, saying he “was advised” that he did not have to disclose the trips. The justice did not respond to the report about his property sale to Crow, though a source with information on the matter told CNN that Thomas apparently didn’t think he needed to disclose the sale because he did not profit from it.
