Editorial: No clarity from Clarence: More entanglements between Crow and Thomas raise questions

Investigative outlet ProPublica is like a dog with a bone, revealing now that real estate baron Harlan Crow paid for years of pricey private school tuition for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ great-nephew Mark Martin, whom the jurist had taken legal custody of and had been raising as a son.

Thomas’ defenders should have kept their powder dry after the first revelations, as their first excuses look increasingly asinine beside the drip-drip of financial entanglements. The “Crow’s just giving hospitality to an old friend” rebukes have given way to the even more absurd “Crow is simply helping needy youth,” about the mogul providing a direct six-figure gift to Thomas in the form of young Martin’s tuition.

What’s next? At this point, it’s anyone’s guess. Maybe a picture will emerge of Crow handing Thomas one of those huge novelty checks. Maybe Crow buys Thomas’ judicial robes and has them dry cleaned. Maybe Thomas is on Crow’s phone plan. Who knows. Everything additional would certainly be amusing, but we can’t let the ludicrousness of this situation distract us from the dead-serious fact that a sitting Supreme Court justice, the rarified group meant to be the ultimate arbiter of this nation’s laws, spent years openly ignoring the ones meant to ensure some level of transparency from him.

Yes, ignoring, and if you buy that the man was just a hapless but well-meaning oaf who misunderstood the disclosure requirements, then we’ve got a lovely bridge to sell you. Thomas can play the ingénue card all he wants, because he knows that at the end of the day, it’s better to seem a little ignorant than very corrupt, but there’s no reason to accept it.

At the very least, the justice should be investigated by the relevant congressional committees, and we should be prepared for those inquiries to lead to some serious next steps. Or Thomas could do the honorable thing and simply come clean, saving everyone the trouble. Did we remember to say that the Supreme Court doesn’t have an enforceable ethics code?

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