Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas Alito didn’t disclose the gifts on legally mandated annual financial reports. Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press (2)WASHINGTON—Senate Democrats intensified their investigation into the ethics of Supreme Court justices, announcing plans to subpoena documents from three wealthy figures who helped provide trips to Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito . “The Supreme Court is in an ethical crisis of its own making,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin of Illinois and Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who heads a courts subcommittee, said in a Monday statement. By accepting “lavish, undisclosed gifts, the justices have enabled their wealthy benefactors and other individuals with business before the court to gain private access to the justices while preventing public scrutiny of this conduct.”

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Persons: Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas Alito didn’t, Scott Applewhite, Clarence Thomas, “, Dick Durbin of, Rhode Island Sen, Sheldon Whitehouse, ” Organizations: Associated Press, WASHINGTON —, Democrats, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Rhode Locations: Rhode Island