Litigation

Editorial: ?Duty to Disclose, Mrs. Thomas?

By Peter Hardin

Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has a duty to disclose the large, secret donors to a conservative nonprofit organization she leads, a New York Times editorial contends.

The editorial follows a Times article a day earlier discussing gifts of $500,000 and $50,000 from undisclosed donors to the group, Liberty Central, and saying questions have been raised in some quarters given  husband’s seat on the court (see Gavel Grab).

“The size of those gifts, their anonymity and their importance to the organization raise a serious issue of ethics for Justice Thomas,” the editorial states. Mrs. Thomas is paid by the organization, it says, her husband benefits from that pay, and Mrs. Thomas has a duty to disclose the donors like the duty faced by former President Bill Clinton to disclose donors to his charitable interests once his wife became Secretary of State.

The disclosure is needed for Justice Thomas to comply with ethics requirements, the editorial argues:

“Justice Thomas needs disclosure to know if either of those donors is a party in a case before the Supreme Court or has an interest in a party. That is the only way he can comply with a fundamental ethical and legal requirement to ‘disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.’?

The editorial adds, “Mrs. Thomas?s activities must be above suspicion so Justice Thomas can be as well.” It concludes, “The Thomases can easily dispel the doubts.”

Full post as published by The Gavel on October 12, 2010 (boomark / email).