Where #ClarenceThomas Entered an Elite Circle & Opened a Door to the Court
The exclusive #HoratioAlgerAssociation brought the justice access to wealthy members & unreported V.I.P. treatment. He, in turn, offered another kind of #access.
By Abbie VanSickle & Steve Eder
#SCOTUS #Privilege #Power #Justice #Law
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/09/us/clarence-thomas-horatio-alger-association.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
“On Oct. 15, 1991, #ClarenceThomas secured his seat on the #SupremeCourt, a narrow victory after a bruising confirmation fight that left him isolated & disillusioned.”
(Ahem, old enough to remember that it was women who were the ones left feeling “isolated & disillusioned” post the Clarence Thomas confirmation.)
#SexualHarassment #SecondClassCitizens #AnitaHill #BelieveSurvivors #StrangeJustice #WomensRights #HumanRights
#HoratioAlgerAssociation #SCOTUS #Privilege #Power #Justice #Law
“Within months, the new justice enjoyed a far-warmer acceptance to a second exclusive club: the #HoratioAlgerAssociation of Distinguished Americans…
“If Justice Thomas’s life had unfolded as he had envisioned, his Horatio Alger induction might have been a celebration of his triumphs as a prosperous lawyer instead of a judge.
“But as HE tells it, after graduating from Yale Law School, he was turned down by a series of top law firms, rejections HE attributes to a perception that he was a token beneficiary of affirmative action. So began his GRUDGING path to a judicial career that brought him great prestige but only modest material #wealth after decades of financial struggle.…
“At #HoratioAlger, #ClarenceThomas moved into the inner circle, a cluster of extraordinarily #wealthy, largely #conservative members who lionized him & all that he had achieved. While he has never held an ofcl leadership position, in some ways he has become the assn’s leading light. He has granted it unusual access to #SCOTUS, where every yr he presides over the group’s signature event: a ceremony in the courtroom at which he places Horatio Alger medals around the necks of new lifetime members.
“One entrepreneur called it ‘the closest thing to being knighted in the United States.’ At the same time, #Justice #ClarenceThomas has served as the group’s best messenger, meeting w/& mentoring the recipients of millions of dollars a year in #HoratioAlger college scholarships, many of whom come from backgrounds that mirror his own.…
“His friendships forged through Horatio Alger have brought him proximity to a lifestyle of unimaginable material privilege.
“Over the yrs, his #HoratioAlger friends have welcomed him at their vacation retreats, arranged VIP access to sporting events & invited him to their lavish parties. In 2004, he joined celebrities including Oprah Winfrey & Ed McMahon at a 3-day 70th birthday bash in MN for the (billionaire) industrialist Dennis Washington.
#ClarenceThomas #SCOTUS #Money #Privilege #Power #Justice #Law
“Several Horatio Alger friends also helped finance the marketing of a hagiographic documentary about #ClarenceThomas in the wake of an HBO film that had resurfaced #AnitaHill’s #SexualHarassment allegations against him during his confirmation.
#Whitewashing #SexualHarassment #AnitaHill #BelieveSurvivors #StrangeJustice #WomensRights #HumanRights #SCOTUS #Privilege #Power #Law #Greed
…“In recent months, #Justice #ClarenceThomas has faced scrutiny over…his relationship to #HarlanCrow, the Texas billionaire, whose largess over more than two decades has included vacations on a superyacht, private school tuition for the great-nephew the justice was raising, & the purchase of his mother’s Savannah, GA, home. None of this was reported by the justice, & the revelations have renewed calls for tighter #SupremeCourt #ethics rules.
But they have already tightened ethics rules. That's a major part of this story.
Thomas did not report those things because the previous rules didn't require such reporting. The rules have since changed, and now they do.
It's unfortunate that so many media outlets are missing that key part of this story.
