http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/slaughter_letter/
Become a co-signer of Rep. Louise Slaughter's letter to Supreme Court Chief
Justice John Roberts demanding that the Judicial
Conference refer Thomas' apparent misdeeds to the U.S. Attorney General for
further investigation. (Full letter text at left.)
Rep. Slaughter will deliver the names of co-signers to Chief Justice Roberts.
Learn more about this campaign
Clarence Thomas is not above the law.
Dear Friend,
One of the bedrock principles of democracy is that nobody is above the law —
not even Supreme Court justices like Clarence
Thomas.
Thomas has flouted the law for years by failing to disclose his wife's
substantial income despite being legally required
to report it.
That is why U.S. Representative Louise Slaughter is demanding that the Judicial
Conference, an administrative arm of the
court, uphold the Ethics in Government Act by referring Thomas' apparent
misdeeds to the Attorney General for further investigation.
Rep. Slaughter has written a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts, who is the
presiding officer of the Judicial Conference,
about this, and she has invited Americans to add their voice by co-signing the
letter (which you can read below).
Co-sign Rep. Slaughter's letter demanding action
on Clarence Thomas. Click here to automatically add your name.
It's inconceivable that a Supreme Court justice like Clarence Thomas would be
unable to understand how to fill out the simple
disclosure forms. And now information has come out showing Thomas accurately
filled out the form for years before abruptly
failing to do so.
Failure to disclose is a serious breach of the law, and the Ethics in
Government Act requires the U.S. Judicial Conference
to refer any judge to the Attorney General whom the Conference "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." 1
We need to make sure Chief Justice Roberts knows the eyes of Congress and the
American people are on him, and we need to
raise our voices and demand he take action.
Co-sign Rep. Slaughter's letter demanding action
on Clarence Thomas. Click here to automatically sign the petition.
Thank you for speaking out.
Becky Bond, Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets
Here's the text of Rep. Slaughter's letter: Dear Mr. Chief Justice:
We write you today in your capacity as Presiding Officer of the Judicial
Conference. We call your attention to the letter
sent to the Conference by members of the House of Representatives on September
29, 2011, requesting an investigation of possible
violations by Justice Clarence Thomas of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978.
Evidence that Justice Thomas failed for 13 years to accurately disclose his
wife's employment has been submitted to the Conference
and we believe the Conference is required by law to refer the matter to the
Department of Justice for further investigation.
In January, Common Cause and Alliance for Justice alerted the Judicial
Conference to Justice Thomas's repeated failure to
make accurate financial disclosures as required under the Ethics Act. Justice
Thomas then amended 21 years of his financial
disclosure forms, explaining that he had, "misunderstood the reporting
instructions."
Since we sent our September 29 letter, important new information concerning
this matter has come to our attention. Disclosure
forms obtained by Common Cause and Alliance for Justice show that Justice
Thomas accurately filed his financial disclosure
forms, including his wife's employment, for as many as 10 years beginning in
1987 when he was Chair of the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission.
Justice Thomas continued to file accurate disclosure forms concerning his
wife's employment when he was a judge on the United
States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. He also accurately filed
his financial disclosure forms regarding
his wife's employment for the first five years he was a Justice of the Supreme
Court.
In 1997 however, Justice Thomas stopped disclosing his wife's employment on his
annual form, instead marking the box labeled
"NONE," to indicate his wife had no employment that year. Other public
documents show that Justice Thomas's wife was employed
in 1997 by the Office of the U.S. House Majority Leader.
Justice Thomas continued to omit his wife's employment from his disclosures for
the next 12 years, marking the "NONE" box
on his annual forms. Other publicly available documents indicate that Justice
Thomas's wife did have employment in every
one of those twelve years. Her employers included the Office of the U.S. House
Majority Leader, the Heritage Foundation
and Hillsdale College.
Documents obtained by Common Cause and Alliance for Justice show that Justice
Thomas's wife earned over $1.6 million from
these sources. We understand that Justice Thomas is not required to disclose
those earnings but we include the number here
to show that his wife's earnings were very substantial and that their omission
is unlikely to have been a mere oversight.
It is very difficult for Justice Thomas to make a credible argument that he
understood the filing instructions for ten years
but then misunderstood them for the next thirteen years.
Section 104(b) of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 requires the Judicial
Conference to refer to the Attorney General
any judge whom the Conference "has reasonable cause to believe has willfully
falsified or willfully failed to file information
required to be reported."
We believe these facts easily establish reasonable cause, and as a result the
Judicial Conference must refer this matter
to the Attorney General for further investigation.
Sincerely,
Louise Slaughter
1. "Clarence Thomas Should Be Investigated
For Nondisclosure, Democratic Lawmakers Say," Jennifer Bendery, Huffington
Post, September 29, 2011.
________________________________
© 2011 CREDO. All rights reserved
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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