Senate Democrats eye subpoenas in Supreme Court ethics investigation

The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote as soon as next week on whether to subpoena Harlan Crow and two other GOP megadonors as part of its Supreme Court ethics investigation.

The panel, which has been scrutinizing Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito over their failure to report a series of lavish trips and gifts on their financial disclosure statements, has requested information from the donors who offered those gifts, only to face limited to no cooperation.

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Crow, a longtime friend of Thomas, has been at the center of extensive reporting by ProPublica, which uncovered the transactions to Thomas and his family, including tuition for Thomas’s grandnephew. Leonard Leo and Robin Arkley, the two other donors under scrutiny, apparently helped pay for a fishing trip Alito took to Alaska in 2008.

Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL), joined by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), cited the “intransigence” of those donors in announcing the subpoena vote, which could be held as early as next Thursday.

“In order to adequately address this crisis, it is imperative that we understand the full extent of how people with interests before the Court are able to use undisclosed gifts to gain private access to the justices,” the two said in a Monday evening statement.

Conservatives have rejected the investigation, led by Senate Democrats, as politically motivated and argue Congress has no constitutional basis for interfering in the affairs of the judicial branch. Thomas and Alito insist they did not run afoul of reporting guidelines.

“I will not bow to the vile and disgusting liberal McCarthyism, that seeks to destroy the Supreme Court simply because it follows the Constitution rather than their political agenda,” Leo, the board chairman of the influential conservative Federalist Society, said in a statement.

Senate Republicans have urged the Supreme Court to adopt a code of ethics in light of the reporting, something Chief Justice John Roberts is floating with his colleagues, but have resisted the idea of imposing one, as Durbin has advocated. The Judiciary Committee, which held hearings on the matter earlier this year, passed transparency reforms in July.

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“The Chief Justice could fix this problem today and adopt a binding code of conduct,” Durbin and Whitehouse said. “As long as he refuses to act, the Judiciary Committee will.” 

Crow offered to cooperate with the committee in exchange for limits on the time frame and extent of their requests, but Durbin rejected the offer out of hand as inadequate and undermining the legitimate purview of Congress. Arkley, too, has declined the committee’s requests.