Justice Clarence Thomas’ Wife Wants Her Own Tea Party – Update

On the outside Liberty Central Inc. may look like another conservative tea partying lobbyist group, non-profit but accepting donations from corporate sponsors. Take a closer look though, and you’ll find the woman behind the organization is Virginia Thomas, the wife of conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Which some critics are understandably worried might be a conflict of interest.

From an L.A. Times article from today: the issue here isn’t that Virginia is an activist – in fact, she has a long history of involvement in conservative think tanks and The Heritage Foundation, which have raised some eyebrows before – but that corporate money going directly to the wife of a Supreme Court Justice member’s lobbyist group could be bordering on gray ethical territory. So far the matter is unprecedented, so in future months we might see those on the left calling for the first limitations of the activities of judges’ spouses.

Ed Morrissey of Hot Air provides the counter-argument:

Liberty Central aims to give grassroots activists a broader understanding of the philosophy of conservatism rather than doing a lot of organizing themselves. I’m not sure why that gives Hennessey such heartburn, but it hardly sets up any conflict of interest for Thomas…

Obviously, the issue isn’t who is organizing what, it’s where the money is going. If Big Tobacco starts putting money into Liberty Central Inc., there’s a fear that it could influence Thomas’ rulings in health-related cases. But rest assured: there will be enough lefty watchdogs on this that any hint of favoritism towards Liberty’s donors will immediately be jumped on and exemplified on the front page of The Huffington Post.