Justice Clarence Thomas' appearance of impropriety? We'll be the judge

It must be more than a little embarrassing for a Supreme Court justice to lament that he took some bad legal advice.

- Clarence Page

But the embarrassment will be worth it for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas if it helps him to get out from under the bigger embarrassments reported by the investigative news service ProPublica.

I’m referring to his failure to report more than two decades and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of luxury trips (around the world) on the sort of superyacht and private jet lifestyle that I usually associate with the Roy family on HBO’s “Succession.”

The largesse came courtesy of Harlan Crow, a Dallas billionaire and longtime friend of Thomas and his wife. The core of the controversy is not so much that Justice Thomas received the gifts but that he did not disclose receiving them.

For example, Thomas did disclose a 2015 gift from Crow — a bronze bust of abolitionist Frederick Douglass valued at $6,484, ProPublica’s report said. But his reports don’t mention the vacations and other travel on Crow’s plane.

On Friday, more than 24 hours after ProPublica’s report, Thomas responded in a statement that he and his wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, were among the “dearest friends” of Harlan and Kathy Crow, and, “as friends do,” had joined the Crows on family trips for more than 25 years.