- Posted October 20, 2011
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
Lawmakers urge probe of Justice Thomas' income nondisclosures
The Daily Record Newswire
In a letter to the U.S. Judicial Conference, 19 House lawmakers called for an investigation into whether U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas violated federal ethics laws by omitting information from annual financial disclosure forms.
The members of Congress cite disclosure forms submitted by Thomas in past years with the box titled "none" checked in relation to his wife's income.
Thomas later amended the disclosures to include $686,000 in income that his wife Virginia Thomas earned from the Heritage Foundation, calling the initial omission an oversight.
The lawmakers requested that the matter be referred to the Justice Department to determine if the nondisclosure violated the Ethics in Government Act.
The law requires the Conference to refer to the Justice Department any judge it "has reasonable cause to believe has willfully failed to file a report or has willfully falsified or willfully failed to file information required to be reported."
Under the Act, the maximum penalty for failure to properly fill out the disclosure forms is $10,000.
"To believe that Justice Thomas didn't know how to fill out a basic disclosure form is absurd," Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., ranking Member of the House Rules Committee and one of the letter's signatories.
"It is reasonable, in every sense of the word, to believe that a member of the highest court in the land should know how to properly disclose almost $700,000 worth of income.
"To not be able to do so is suspicious, and according to law, requires further investigation."
Published: Thu, Oct 20, 2011
headlines Washtenaw County
- MSU Law 1L elected as Member-At-Large for National Black Law Students Association
- Michigan Law Professor Daniel Fryer joins Washtenaw County Advisory Council on Reparations
- Cooley Law School’s Lansing campus holds honors convocation
- Simon & Schuster to publish Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s book in July
- Attorney’s work includes multi-million dollar cases
headlines National
- Incarceration series includes female inmates but doesn’t tell full story
- ACLU and BigLaw firm use ‘Orange is the New Black’ in hashtag effort to promote NY jail reform
- Former DOJ official who alleged election fraud violated at least one ethics rule, ethics committee says
- Winston & Strawn will provide reduced-cost legal services for routine tasks under Winston Legal Solutions umbrella
- Should Justice Sotomayor retire? Chemerinsky, White House haven’t joined calls for her to step down
- Which BigLaw firms are increasing lateral associate hiring the most? One made legal headlines last year