Left-leaning critics of the U.S. Supreme Court have been laser-focused on what they say is a pattern of conservative justices taking allegedly improper gifts without disclosing them. The critics say this creates the appearance that justices can be influenced by the rich.
Conservative black justice Clarence Thomas is the most frequent target, being accused of accepting rides on private jets and similar accommodations from his friend billionaire and conservative political donor Harlan Crow. Thomas has characterized these gifts as “hospitality” from a friend.
Now conservative justice Samuel Alito has reported a gift worth $900 on a mandatory annual disclosure form. The gift came in the form of concert tickets from German princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis. There are no further details about the tickets, and Alito disclosed no additional income from books or teaching gigs.
For this year’s forms, justice Thomas listed some gifts from his friend Crow that came in 2019. These included a hotel stay in Bali, as well as room and board at a club in Sonoma County, California. Thomas has maintained that he has always reported gifts that the believed were required to be reported; it appears that he is erring on the safe side now and disclosing more than he had before.
Alito, too, has been accused of hiding gifts. The outlet ProPublic said last year that Alito took a trip to an Alaskan fishing lodge paid for by Republican donors in 2008. Alito claimed he was not obliged under the rules to disclose this trip because he had an exemption for “personal hospitality.”
This year, Alito disclosed stock sales ranging from $1,000 to $15,000 in stock in Anheuser Busch. The sales were completed in August of 2023, just after the beer company’s stock stopped falling. The cultural pushback against the company came when Bud Light hired a “transgender” personality (a man named Dylan Mulvaney who claims to be a “girl” or a “woman,” depending on the day) for a promotion. This was seen by many customers as a deliberate thumb in their faces for being conservative and traditional, and the company’s stock tanked.
On the liberal side of the bench, justice Ketanji Brown Jackson listed tickets to a Beyoncé concert given to her by the singer, and valued at $3,700.
