Justice Clarence Thomas Caught in Another Ethics Scandal

I have to wonder why this info came to light on a Friday.  The Friday "news dump" is in full swing as far as revelations of the financial impropriety of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.  By law Supreme Court Justices are required to give full disclosure of their spouse's income sources.  This is to prevent them from being unduly influenced by monitary considerations.

Well, Thomas has some explaining to do.  Between the years 2003 and 2007 his wife, Virginia Thomas earned $686,589 from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.  This income went unreported on his Supreme Court disclosure form and in fact Thomas lied by checking the "none" box on the form.

This clear violation of ethics comes on the heels of another ethical dilemma involving Thomas' fund raising activities with Charles Koch.  These problems show a clear conflict of interest especially when the court has just ruled on major corporate political fund raising issues.  The appearance and I would argue the "fact" is that Thomas and Scalia (also implicated in the Koch scandal) are in fact on the corporate payroll and should step down.  If not it would not be out of the question to impeach both justices.