On Thursday, ProPublica revealed that a right-wing billionaire has secretly funded a lavish lifestyle for Justice Clarence Thomas. Then on Friday, a federal judge in Texas tried to block the use around the country of mifepristone, the medication used in half of all abortions. These two dramatic twists are part of the same story. They show a judicial system out of control, in thrall to right-wing activists and swimming in cash.
It seems that Thomas routinely received luxury travel, gifts and accommodations from Harlan Crow, a real estate developer and Republican benefactor. The Los Angeles Times first reported on the flow of gifts from Crow to Thomas in 2004. Then Thomas simply stopped disclosing them, for nearly two decades.
Details are eye-popping, a tale of luxury trips to faraway vacations, luxury yachts and private jet excursions that would be valued at $500,000 a pop. A painting shows Thomas, Crow and Leonard Leo, the leader of the conservative Federalist Society, puffing stogies at a private hotel owned by the real estate mogul: an instantly iconic image of a hermetically sealed world of wealth, ideological militancy and elite chumminess.
