Year after
year, the justice falsely denied on the simple, sworn forms that his
wife received reportable income, according to the revised forms he
submitted after Common Cause exposed the scandal in January, initially
through a Los Angeles Times article. The non-partisan reform group has
an updated chart here of allegations. The Alliance for Justice has a more general report on court ethics here.
Since
then critics in Congress, public interest groups and the press have
documented conflict of interest, false statement and bribery allegations
involving at least two of the nation's most important cases of the past
century, each decided on 5-4 votes with Thomas casting a deciding vote.
Bush v. Gore in effect awarded the 2000 presidency to
the Bush administration by halting the Florida recount at a time when
Thomas was arguably conflicted by his wife's work leading Bush
transition planning for the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing advocacy
group.
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission last year
upended federal election law by removing restrictions on campaign
contributions by corporations and unions under the majority's theory
that the law unduly burdens their First Amendment rights.
This column is excerpted from a longer version at the Justice Integrity Project site, with an extensive appendix of sources.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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