Feb 14, 2025 Story by: Editor
Recently disclosed financial records from the 1990s have shed new light on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ history of receiving gifts and travel reimbursements. These filings, added to the Supreme Connections database on Thursday, provide a rare glimpse into Thomas’ financial disclosures from 1992 to 1999, which had previously been unavailable.
The Supreme Connections database, designed to help the public explore Supreme Court justices’ financial disclosures, has been updated with these newly surfaced records, alongside Justice Samuel Alito’s deferred 2023 filing. While federal ethics laws mandate annual disclosure filings, most records are destroyed after six years, making historical financial data difficult to obtain.
Alito’s latest filing, released in August after an extension, notes that he received $900 in concert tickets from Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, a Bavarian aristocrat known for her ties to conservative and Catholic circles. The New York Times previously reported that the tickets were for her annual music festival in Regensburg, Germany.
The Thomas filings, covering the 1990s, detail over 100 gifts and travel reimbursements, including multiple private flights, cigars from the late conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, and a 1997 trip to Bohemian Grove, an exclusive all-male retreat in northern California. That trip was funded by billionaire Harlan Crow, who has long been linked to providing Thomas with luxury travel accommodations. ProPublica has reported extensively on Crow’s history of undisclosed trips for Thomas, including other visits to Bohemian Grove.
Thomas has maintained that he was not required to disclose such gifts under ethics regulations at the time. However, these newly surfaced documents add to ongoing scrutiny over the financial ties between Supreme Court justices and wealthy benefactors. Source: ProPublica
