The Patriot Post® · In Brief: The Smearing of Clarence Thomas

Leftists really hate Clarence Thomas. As an intelligent and highly influential black man, he expresses opinions black men are not allowed to have. That’s been clear ever since the disgraceful character assassination attempt at his confirmation hearings more than 30 years ago. Well, they’re at it again with a new media hit piece. The editors of The Wall Street Journal explain:

The left’s assault on the Supreme Court is continuing, and the latest front is the news that Justice Clarence Thomas has a rich friend who has hosted the Justice on his private plane, his yacht, and his vacation resort. That’s it. That’s the story. Yet this non-bombshell has triggered breathless claims that the Court must be investigated, and that Justice Thomas must resign or be impeached. Those demands give away the real political game here.

The editors then recap a little more of the story:

ProPublica, a left-leaning website, kicked off the fun with a report Thursday that Justice Thomas has a longtime friendship with Harlan Crow, a wealthy Texas real-estate developer. The intrepid reporters roamed far and wide to discover that the Justice has sometimes traveled on Mr. Crow’s “Bombardier Global 5000 jet” and that each summer the Justice and his wife spend a vacation week at Mr. Crow’s place in the Adirondacks.

The piece is loaded with words and phrases intended to convey that this is all somehow disreputable: “superyacht”; “luxury trips”; “exclusive California all-male retreat”; “sprawling ranch”; “private chefs”; “elegant accommodation”; “opulent lodge”; “lavishing the justice with gifts.” And more.

Adjectival overkill is the method of bad polemicists who don’t have much to report. The ProPublica writers suggest that Justice Thomas may have violated ethics rules, and they quote a couple of cherry-picked ethicists to express their dismay.

But it seems clear that the Court’s rules at the time all of this happened did not require that gifts of personal hospitality be disclosed. This includes the private plane trips. ProPublica fails to make clear to readers that the U.S. Judicial Conference recently changed its rules to require more disclosure. The new rules took effect last month.

Thomas and Crow deny any wrongdoing, and there’s no obvious justification for disbelieving them. Crow hasn’t had a case before the Court, and has donated all over the political map in any case. Thomas issued a statement saying, “Early in my tenure at the court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable.” He will follow the new guidelines.

None of this will stop the political stampede to portray the Crow-Thomas friendship as a scandal to tarnish the Justice and the current Court. This campaign has been underway with particular ferocity since the Court’s majority shifted during the Trump years toward Justices who have an originalist view of interpreting the law and Constitution.

Democrats and their media allies began and will continue beating the drum against Thomas in the days ahead. The real game, say the Journal editors, is clear: “It’s all ugly politics, but the left is furious it lost control of the Court, and it wants it back by whatever means possible.”

Wall Street Journal subscribers can read the whole thing here.