After almost a decade on the court, Thomas had grown frustrated with his financial situation, according to friends. He had recently started raising his young grandnephew, and Thomas’ wife was soliciting advice on how to handle the new expenses. The month before, the justice had borrowed $267,000 from a friend to buy a high-end RV.
At the resort, Thomas gave a speech at an off-the-record conservative conference. He found himself seated next to a Republican member of Congress on the flight home. The two men talked, and the lawmaker left the conversation worried that Thomas might resign.
Congress should give Supreme Court justices a pay raise, Thomas told him. If lawmakers didn’t act, “one or more justices will leave soon” — maybe in the next year.
At the time, Thomas’ salary was $173,600, equivalent to over $300,000 today. But he was one of the least wealthy members of the court, and on multiple occasions in that period, he pushed for ways to make more money. In other private conversations, Thomas repeatedly talked about removing a ban on justices giving paid speeches.
That’s called soliciting a bribe…
Gee rich people who put me into power, 300k just isn’t enough to live off of and if I don’t get more money I might resign in a year a liberal would pick me replacement…
Stochastic bribery? “Won’t someone rid me if this meddlesome debt?”
Somehow, we’ve been able to raise a child on a lot less than $173,600. Of course, we didn’t take a loan to buy a high-end RV.
Maybe Thomas should have done the thing that Republicans keep saying people aren’t doing and live within his means.
He should lay off the lattes and avocado toast. Needs a side hustle
You know… if you can’t make do with nearly 200k+ for a salary…
Maybe you should learn to figure it out rather than solicit bribes from people like Harlan Crow.
Has he tried laying off the avocado toast and making coffee at home?
Nope. Why do you think he got that RV? To support his about-toast and coffee habit! How else is he going to get out there and try the very best?
From the moment he graduated from Yale Law, he’s had a chip on his shoulder about deserving to be rich. It’s understandable. Many of his white classmates got high paying jobs, he struggled. He blamed it on affirmative action, believing that his degree wasn’t taken seriously because they thought he didn’t get where he did on merit. (Worth noting that before Yale Law he attended the College of the Holy Cross as one of the first black students there… but see he deserved that, it wasn’t affirmative action.)
His whole “philosophy” is pretty interesting, not in that it makes any sense, just in that you can see how his experiences warped his world view.
He doesn’t believe in any government program that could help black people. Partially, that’s because he thinks that the world will only believe that black people are where they are on merit if they’re never given a hand up. Partially it’s because he was influenced by black separatist movements and thinks black people should stay angry with whites, and not ever feel they are allies.
Being so against affirmative action got him the attention of Reagan, and so he started moving in Republican political circles. His party trick was shitting all over social programs that helped black people, while having black skin. The GOP loved him for it. He was appointed chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, while hating everything it stood for. Basically, a typical GOP ploy of assigning someone who wanted to destroy something to run it.
Once he was enmeshed in GOP politics, he became the perfect supreme court nominee. A guy with black skin (meaning it was going to be hard to get the democrats to vote against his confirmation) but who hated every government program that helped black people (meaning the GOP was going to love him).
But, even though he got the power of the Supreme Court, he never got the payout he thought he deserved. The guy who loaned him the money to buy the half-million dollar tour bus had worked as a congressional staffer at the same time as Thomas. But, instead of staying in politics, he’d spun off into business and gotten rich. Thomas got the power, but he didn’t get the money, and he’s been chasing the payout he thinks he deserves ever since his Yale graduation in 1974.
When Richard Nixon was President, his salary was $200,000 /year and that was considered a fabulous sum. The inflated salaries of CEOs was a result of Reagan deregulating the banks.
According to The CPI Inflation Calculator, $200,000 in December 1969 would be the equivalent of $1.628 million today.
The CPI index is useful for some things, but not the real world. In 1969, that $200,000 would have brought you a mansion, a Rolls Royce, a Jag, and you’d have had enough money left over to buy a nice little business. In 1960, minimum wage was $1/hour and the average house was $11,000.
And what if your mansion and travel were also covered by that job?
I have no idea what you are asking.
You were talking about President Nixon’s pay
In 1969, that $200,000 would have brought you a mansion, a Rolls Royce
But Presidents are given a mansion and travel/transportation, so that $200k goes much farther
… in purchasing power. Which is a lot.
Just a reminder that he voted against student loan relief and was able to get over a quarter of a million of debt forgiven.
I choose my word carefully. I said “voted”. Whatever it is those people think they are doing on the court has nothing to do with the law.
As a parent, I get it. We had to buy 17 luxury RVs before my son turned 18. It’s brutal out there.
Nobody understandz me
That sounds a lot like soliciting & being given a bribe.
Let’s ask the Supreme Court if it’s a crime. They said no.
Another reason for the court to be subjected to change; they’re all wealthy fucks who have no clue, or care, how their rulings affect everyone outside the donor class.
He wouldn’t even qualify for a security clearance with the kind of debt that he intentionally racked up, and that is explicitly because it would open him up to bribery.
Guess what? It did open him up to bribery! What a shock.
Maybe the people who serve in the most powerful levels of government should at least be able to qualify for a basic security clearance.
The month before, the justice had borrowed $267,000 from a friend to buy a high-end RV.
Just cut back on the avocado toast.
“Borrowed” money he never repaid and was never expected to be repaid.
He found himself seated next to a Republican member of Congress on the flight home
Aww gee, what a coincidence
God, I wish he would have. Of course, it was nothing but an empty threat to get him more bribes.
Why will he not fuck off and die?
He and Senator McConnell have Kissinger’s kiss: Somehow people hellbent on being evil get to live for a very long time.
Do it, Tom
I wonder what his nieces and nephews call him?
Mo powa, mo monah
