AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
A new report took a deep dive into Clarence Thomas’ financial history, shedding some light on the Supreme Court justice’s debt and dissatisfaction with his paycheck before he started accepting luxurious perks from wealthy Republican friends.
Throughout 2023, ProPublica dropped multiple bombshell reports on the many lavish gifts, vacations, and other favors Thomas received over the years that previously went undisclosed. On Monday, the investigative outlet released a new article that examined an episode where Thomas sparked concerns that he might leave his seat because he thought Supreme Court justices should get paid more.
The article reports that in early 2000, Thomas travelled to a Georgia beach resort and gave keynote speech for conservative organization that paid for his trip, which went undisclosed. On his flight back home, Thomas reportedly sat next to former Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), and their conversation left Stearns with the impression that Thomas was thinking about resigning.
ProPublica reported that Thomas told Stearns “one or more justices will leave soon” unless Congress took action to give him and his
“His importance as a conservative was paramount,” Stearn said in an interview flagged by ProPublica. “We wanted to make sure he felt comfortable in his job and he was being paid properly.”
Thomas’ salary back then was $173,600, north of $300,000 when adjusted for today’s inflation rates. ProPublica noted that Thomas was dealing with some major expenses at the time, not the least being his purchase of a high-end RV after borrowing $267,000 from a friend.
The full details of Thomas’ finances over the years remain unclear. He made at least two big purchases around the early ’90s: a Corvette and a house in the Virginia suburbs on 5 acres of land. When Thomas and his wife, Ginni, bought the home for $522,000 a year after he joined the court, they borrowed all but $8,000, less than 2% of the purchase price, property records show.Public records suggest a degree of financial strain. Throughout the first decade of his tenure, the couple regularly borrowed more money, including a $100,000 credit line on their house and a consumer loan of up to $50,000. Around January 1998, Thomas’ life changed when he took in his 6-year-old grandnephew, becoming his legal guardian
and raising him as a son. The Thomases sent the child to a series of private schools.
Thomas’ warnings wound up getting traction in conservative and legal corners, and former Chief Justice William Rehnquist made judicial pay raises a main topic of his year-end report. Meanwhile, Thomas was pushing for a removal on the ban forbidding justices from giving paid speeches.
Things turned around financially for Thomas in the years that followed:
In 2003, he received the first payments of a $1.5 million advance for his memoir, a record-breaking sum for justices at the time. Ginni Thomas, who had been a congressional staffer, was by then working at the Heritage Foundation and was paid a salary in the low six figures.Thomas also received dozens of expensive gifts throughout the 2000s, sometimes coming from people he’d met only shortly before. Thomas met Earl Dixon, the owner of a Florida pest control company, while getting his RV serviced outside Tampa in 2001, according to the Thomas biography “Supreme Discomfort.” The next year, Dixon gave Thomas $5,000 to put toward his grandnephew’s tuition. Thomas reported the payment in his annual disclosure filing.
He also apparently had a change of heart about his paycheck:
By 2019, the justices’ pay hadn’t changed beyond keeping up with inflation. But Thomas’ views had apparently transformed from two decades before. That June, during a public appearance, Thomas was asked about salaries at the court. “Oh goodness, I think it
’s plenty,” Thomas responded. “My wife and I are doing fine. We don’t live extravagantly, but we are fine.”