Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Under Investigation for Nondisclosure

House Democrats filed a request yesterday to begin a federal investigation into Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' financial past. They accuse Thomas of neglecting to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in income on financial disclosure papers, dating all the way back to the beginning of tenure on the Supreme Court. The papers, which contains a line item in which he must claim any income made by his wife, has been marked "none" for his entire tenure. However, 20 Democrats lead by House Rules Committee member Rep Louise Slaughter, contend that Thomas' wife did receive money; $700,000 from the conservative Heritage Foundation in 2003-2007 alone. Additionally, Thomas himself is accused of not disclosing a number of travel expenses or reimbursements from using a private yacht and airplane owned by real estate magnate Harlan Crowe. Thomas is one of the most conservative judges on the Supreme Court, and the potential for an ouster of the already right-leaning panel would leave another possible appointment for Barack Obama just before the 2012 elections.

"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," Slaughter said in a statement reported by Huffington Post, "To not be able to do so is suspicious, and according to law, requires further investigation. To accept Justice Thomas’s explanation without doing the required due diligence would be irresponsible." The group of House Democrats have referred this case to the Judicial Conference of the U.S., an entity that is required to pass on the case of any judge in which 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," to the Attorney General.

An indictment of Justice Thomas at this point in the political climate would be a serious blow to conservatives in Washington, particularly as the Affordable Care Act is up for deliberation sometime within the next year. In fact, the Heritage Foundation, the non-profit that paid out $700,000 to Thomas' wife over four years, is one of the biggest opponents to the ACA and may create a major conflict of interest for Thomas to hear the case, even if he is not formally indicted by the Attorney General. The result of Thomas' exclusion could be a different move in the legislative and judicial precedents in US policy.