Bob Neal

Democracy depends on trust. Trust in institutions, trust in the people who run the institutions.

News this week gnawed at our trust in two individuals in high places. To wit, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey.

Misbehavior on high has always been with us, usually in the form of people using their power to grow their wealth or power or both. As New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie put it, “build an exclusive, oligarchical institution, and you’ll get an exclusive, oligarchical politics.”

The key word is exclusive. The court is an exclusive club, an all-white-all-boys club until 1967. Part of exclusivity is size. A club of 10,000 members isn’t exclusive. A court of nine is.

Samuel Chase, a member of the Maryland Ratifying Convention, opposed the Constitution because the Senate was too small (26 members then). He wrote that small size exposed it to “bribery and corruption.” He added, “No free people ever reposed power in so small a number.”

Bouie cited a critic of the Constitution who called himself Brutus: “Every body of men invested with office are tenacious of power. The same principle will influence them to extend their power and increase their rights” and “enlarge the sphere of their own authority.”

Enter Clarence Thomas. The longest-serving justice rose from deep poverty to become the second Black Justice. Apparently, he likes being around people in high places.

ProPublica, a non-partisan and non-profit political site, revealed that Thomas has been a free-rider for 25 years on the jets and yachts of a Texas billionaire named Harlan Crow. It valued a freeload vacation in 2019, alone, at more than $500,000.

Thomas said he “had been advised” that he didn’t have to report these gifts. (Journalist’s caveat: Don’t trust the passive voice [“had been advised”] because scoundrels use it to hide the truth. Who advised him? Thomas isn’t saying.)

Crow is a real-estate magnate and huge donor to Republican causes. He also collects Nazi memorabilia, including two paintings by Adolf Hitler, a one-time impoverished Austrian artist.

Since the first story, ProPublica has reported that Thomas sold Crow real estate in Savannah, Georgia, for $133,363. It’s the house in which Thomas’s mother lives, plus two vacant lots. Thomas had reported he had a one-third interest in property in Savannah that was worth $40,000.

Federal law requires justices to report real estate sales of $1,000 or more. Thomas did not report the sale of the Savannah parcels in 2014, the year of the sale, or in any later year.

Thomas insists he has done nothing wrong because Crow has long been a close personal friend and gifts from close friends don’t have to be reported. Thomas met Crow after joining the court in 1991. Thomas hasn’t responded to the news of the real-estate sales.

Here are a couple of canons from the American Bar Association’s code of ethics for judges:

Canon 1. “A judge shall uphold and promote the independence, integrity and impartiality of the judiciary and shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety.”

Canon 3. “A judge shall conduct the judge’s personal and extrajudicial activities to minimize the risk of conflict with the obligations of judicial office.”

What part of “the appearance of impropriety” does Thomas not understand? Even that paragon of civic virtue Julius Caesar divorced a wife who appeared to be behaving inappropriately.

In 1969, Justice Abe Fortas resigned after accepting $20,000 from a charity controlled by the family of an indicted stock manipulator. Fortas returned the money. Maryland senator Joseph Tydings, a Fortas backer, called on Fortas to resign, saying, “The confidence of our citizenry in the federal judiciary must be preserved.”

The Gallup Poll, which leans slightly Republican, found approval of the Supreme Court fell sharply from 80% in 1998. Only 25% approved of the court this year, down from 36% in 2021.  What will the numbers look like after the Thomas revelations?

The appearance of impropriety rose this week in Maine, as well, when Attorney General Frey acknowledged an affair with an employee whom he directly supervised. Anyone who has been in business knows the cliches about what the boss can’t do with employees. I can’t print them here.

Michael Shepherd of the Bangor Daily News wrote, “Frey has said his relationship did not violate state law or his office’s rule.” Shepherd added that state policy is for supervisors to disclose such relationships so the two don’t work together. Frey said he reassigned the employee.

As you might expect, Republicans jumped all over the story. As they should have. Among Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Troy Jackson said he is “deeply disappointed.” His office suggested to the BDN that it might seek action. Gov. Janet Mills and House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross have been silent.

Our public servants should deserve our trust. Thomas and Frey do not.

Both should resign.

Bob Neal regrets that the moral standards for public officials have, surprisingly, fallen sharply since the days when key decisions were made in the smoke-filled back rooms of political clubs. Neal can be reached at bobneal@myfairpoint.net.