Advocacy groups have urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to call Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to testify about his relationship with a billionaire GOP donor, a move experts say would escalate conflict between two branches of government and could lead to a separation-of-powers showdown.
Senate Judiciary Chair Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and other Democrats on the committee instead have put the onus on the Supreme Court to address the conduct at the center of two ProPublica reports that Thomas did not disclose luxury trips or a real estate transaction with Harlan Crow.
Durbin said the committee would hold a hearing “regarding the need to restore confidence in the Supreme Court’s ethical standards.” But he has called on Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to do an investigation, a hint of the underlying political and separation-of-powers concerns at play.
