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☆ One of Harlan Crow's Hitler paintings from his collection of Nazi memorabilia is likely a fake, according to two top experts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Jack Newsham | Katherine Long | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

But one of his supposed Hitler paintings appears to be fake, two experts told Insider. Harlan Crow's little-seen Hitler art collectionLittle is known about Crow's collection. Insider spoke with a person who attended a 2014 tour of Crow's library, led by Crow's personal librarian, who confirmed that he saw the Hitler watercolor in Crow's collection. The US Army has four Hitler paintings in storage, Renee Klish, a retired Army curator, told Insider. Panagopulos of Alexander Historical Auctions, who has often disagreed with Droog, also said it was doubtful that Crow's painting was genuine.

☆ Supreme Court's Roberts declines to appear at Senate Judiciary hearing
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( John Kruzel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas (L) talks with Chief Justice John Roberts as the justices pose for their group portrait at the Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., November 30, 2018. REUTERS/Jim Young/File PhotoWASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will not testify at an upcoming Senate Judiciary Committee hearing expected to focus on judicial ethics, he said in a letter on Tuesday to the committee chair. A Supreme Court spokesperson issued the response, which included five pages of information about current judicial ethics standards. "Supreme Court ethics reform must happen whether the Court participates in the process or not," Durbin said in a statement responding to Roberts' letter. "It is time for Congress to accept its responsibility to establish an enforceable code of ethics for the Supreme Court, the only agency of our government without it."

☆ Head of a Major Law Firm Bought Real Estate From Gorsuch
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Charlie Savage | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON — One month after Neil M. Gorsuch was appointed to the Supreme Court in April 2017, he and two partners finally sold a vacation property they had been trying to offload for nearly two years. But when he reported the sale the next year, he left blank a field asking the identity of the buyer. County real estate records in Colorado show that Brian L. Duffy, the chief executive of Greenberg Traurig, a sprawling law firm that frequently has business before the court, and his wife, Kari Duffy, bought the property. The buyer’s identity — and Justice Gorsuch’s decision not to disclose it — was reported earlier on Tuesday by Politico. Although experts said that the omission did not violate the law, they added that it underscored the need for ethics reforms given the intensifying scrutiny on financial entanglements at the Supreme Court and renewed calls by Democratic lawmakers for tightened rules.

☆ Clarence Thomas didn't recuse himself from a 2004 appeal tied to Harlan Crow's family business, per Bloomberg
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Lauren Steussy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Clarence Thomas previously said his friend Harlan Crow had no business before the court. But a case involving Trammell Crow Residential made its way to the Supreme Court in 2005, per Bloomberg. Harlan Crow was CEO of Crow Holdings from 1988 to 2017, and remains chair of its board, per Bloomberg and The Real Deal. "At the time of this case, Trammell Crow Residential operated completely independently of Crow Holdings with a separate management team and its own independent operations," the statement to Bloomberg said. Neither Harlan Crow nor Crow Holdings had knowledge of or involvement in this case, and a search of Crow Holding's legal records reveals no involvement in this case.

☆ Sen. Wyden asks billionaire Harlan Crow for list of gifts to Supreme Court Justice Thomas
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on Monday asked GOP megadonor Harlan Crow for a complete list of gifts to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and evidence that the billionaire real estate developer complied with federal tax law in connection with the long-undisclosed largesse to Thomas. "This unprecedented arrangement between a wealthy benefactor and a Supreme Court justice raises serious concerns related to federal tax and ethics laws," Wyden, who heads the Senate Finance Committee, wrote in a six-page letter to Crow. Thomas had not disclosed any of the gifts from Crow, or the property purchases by him, until they were revealed by ProPublica. "The secrecy surrounding your dealings with Justice Thomas is simply unacceptable," Wyden wrote in his letter to Crow. "The American public deserves a full accounting of the full extent of your largesse towards Justice Thomas, including whether these gifts complied with all relevant federal tax and ethics laws," he wrote.

☆ Supreme Court takes up legal spat over public officials blocking people on social media
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Lawrence Hurley | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 19: The Supreme Court of the United States, on Wednesday, April 19, 2023 in Washington, DC. But the legal dispute is the same: Can blocking someone on social media give rise to a free speech violation under the Constitution's First Amendment? It's a recurring question that has arisen at all levels of government as elected officials increasingly use social media to interact with voters. The appeals court concluded that the elected officials were acting in their official capacities and that social media accounts are akin to a public forum. The court also rejected the officials' argument that their social media pages were not official channels for members of the public to communicate with the government.

☆ What Scalia’s Defense of a Free Jet Trip Says About Thomas’s Travels
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON — Almost 20 years ago, during the Supreme Court’s winter break in 2004, Justice Antonin Scalia took a free trip on a Gulfstream jet, hitching a ride with Vice President Dick Cheney on a government plane. The trip ripened into a controversy, as the court had recently agreed to hear a case in which Mr. Cheney was a party. Lawyers for the other side asked Justice Scalia to disqualify himself, and he issued a combative 21-page memorandum refusing to do so. Unlike Mr. Cheney, Mr. Crow is not known to have had business before the court, so the two cases are hardly identical. But Justice Scalia’s discussion of whether the plane ride was a gift, what it was worth and whether it needed to be disclosed helps illuminate the legal standards that apply to Justice Thomas’s travels.

☆ Opinion: What happens when you knock on a door
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Richard Galant | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +18 min

We’re looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets. In Kansas City, Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old White homeowner shot Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager who rang his doorbell. And, “with Trump as the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, Fox has resumed coverage of him which often veers into the free-advertisement category. Neither Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who announced his candidacy last week, nor Marianne Williamson represents a serious threat, Axelrod noted. “The calendar reads 2023,” wrote the Republican former lieutenant governor of Georgia, Geoff Duncan, “but it feels like 2016 all over again.

The Supreme Court ruled to uphold FDA approval of the abortion pill on Friday. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito publicly dissented, with Alito writing an opinion. The ruling did not specify how most of the justices voted, or even how many justices voted in favor. For part of his reasoning, Alito focused on the "shadow docket" itself. I thought you were against using the shadow docket and changing things in these ways,'" Lemieux said.

☆ Justice Clarence Thomas and the Plague of Bad Reporting
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( James Taranto | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Wonder Land: When we began to devalue conscience, blurring a pragmatic understanding of right from wrong, we unleashed the whirlwind that engulfs us now. Images: Margaret Small/Reuter/Zuma Press Composite: Mark KellyProPublica’s big scoop turned out to be a quarter-teaspoon. In an error-filled report last week, the opinionated news site got one point right: Justice Clarence Thomas didn’t disclose the 2014 sale of his one-third interest in three Savannah, Ga., properties to a company controlled by his friend Harlan Crow . On these pages, in an article published online Sunday, I observed that he may have to amend his financial-disclosure form for that year. On Monday, “a source close to Thomas” told CNN that the justice would do so.

☆ Chief Justice John Roberts Asked to Address ‘Ethical Standards’ at Supreme Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Jess Bravin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Sen. Dick Durbin invited Chief Justice John Roberts to appear personally or send another justice to testify. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg NewsWASHINGTON—The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee asked Chief Justice John Roberts to testify at a public hearing on Supreme Court ethics rules, after Justice Clarence Thomas has come under scrutiny for accepting luxury trips from and selling real estate to a Texas billionaire and donor to conservative causes. “There has been a steady stream of revelations regarding Justices falling short of the ethical standards expected of other federal judges and, indeed, of public servants generally,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) said in a Thursday letter to the chief justice.

The actual malice standard creates breathing room for public debate by protecting accidental misstatements about powerful people while still allowing for liability for intentional lies. But public officials and public figures, whom we expect to tolerate sharp public criticism, must also show in a defamation case that the speaker didn’t just inadvertently misspeak, but intentionally published falsehoods. From the start of the Dominion lawsuit, Fox News had pressed an argument that would have created a form of actual malice on steroids, preventing accountability altogether. Carefully calibrated doctrines protect neutral reporting and require courts to examine whether an outlet goes beyond reporting to endorsing falsehoods. There has actually been a movement to revisit the actual malice standard but in favor of narrowing it — or even eliminating it altogether — rather than expanding it.

☆ Supreme Court says abortion pill mifepristone will remain broadly available during legal battle
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Demonstrators rally in support of abortion rights at the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, April 15, 2023. The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the abortion pill mifepristone to remain broadly available as litigation plays out in a lower court. The appeals court has scheduled oral arguments for Wednesday, May 17 at 1 pm CT. Mifepristone has become the central flashpoint in the legal battle over abortion since the Supreme Court last summer overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that guaranteed abortion as a constitutional right nationwide. The appeals court judges also suspended the 2019 approval of the generic version of mifepristone.

☆ Supreme Court protects access to abortion pill
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Ariane De Vogue | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —The Supreme Court on Friday protected access to a widely used abortion drug by freezing lower-court rulings that placed restrictions on its usage. How the dispute over medication abortion is ultimately resolved could make it more difficult for women to obtain abortion, even in the states that still allow it. At issue is the scope of FDA’s authority to regulate mifepristone, a drug that the medical community has deemed safe and effective. The next step in the litigation will be a hearing in front of a New Orleans-based federal appeals court on May 17. The appeals court ultimately let stand the government’s approval of the drug, but agreed with Kacsmaryk that access could be limited.

☆ A Supreme Court justice resigned 54 years ago over conduct that may 'pale in comparison' to Clarence Thomas' — but Thomas is almost certain to get off scot-free thanks in part to the 'Trump effect'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas resigned in 1969 over accusations of financial misconduct. But unlike Fortas, Thomas is unlikely to experience severe consequences in the post-Trump era. Like Fortas, Thomas has been accused of financial misconduct. Democratic lawmakers have called for an investigation into Thomas, and the Senate Judiciary Committee has said it will hold a hearing on Supreme Court ethics. "He will forever be remembered as the second Abe Fortas," Kalir said.

The Supreme Court maintained access to the abortion drug mifepristone on Friday. The court took on the issue after a federal judge in Texas issued a ruling suspending FDA approval of mifepristone. Drugs like mifepristone and misoprostol have been under heightened scrutiny from abortion opponents since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June. Earlier in April, a federal judge in Amarillo, Texas, issued a ruling suspending mifepristone's FDA approval, arguing the approval itself was unlawful. Following the Supreme Court's reversal on abortion rights, Democrats heavily campaigned on the issue of abortion in the 2022 midterm elections.

On that unredacted form, Kacsmaryk reported owning about $2.9 million in stock in the Florida-based supermarket company Publix. Federal judges are only required to report financial holdings in ranges, and don’t have to provide exact figures. One possible source of the Publix stock Kacsmaryk reported in 2017 is the judge’s grandmother. In 2020 and 2021, less than 4% of officials required to file judicial financial disclosures requested redaction, according to reports from the Administrative Office of the US Courts. In any case, experts said, the judge’s redacted report prevents transparency that litigants deserve.

[1/2] Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts arrives before President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Tuesday, February 7, 2023, in Washington. Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via REUTERS/File PhotoCompanies United States Senate FollowWASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) - The Senate Judiciary Committee's chairman called on U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts to testify at a May 2 hearing on Supreme ethics reform after earlier urging him to investigate ties between Justice Clarence Thomas and a wealthy Republican donor. The court did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Roberts. The chief justice is a member of the court's 6-3 conservative majority. In inviting Roberts to testify, Durbin also said the chief justice could designate another justice to appear instead.

CNN —Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin has requested that Chief Justice John Roberts or “another Justice whom you designate” appear before his committee next month for a hearing on Supreme Court ethics rules. The hospitality was not disclosed on Thomas’ public financial filings with the Supreme Court, ProPublica said. In his letter, Durbin argued that there is precedent for justices to testify before the committee, citing a hearing in 2011 when then-justices Stephen Breyer and Antonin Scalia appeared for a hearing. These problems were already apparent back in 2011, and the Court’s decade-long failure to address them has contributed to a crisis of public confidence,” Durbin wrote. “The status quo is no longer tenable.”The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts poses during a group portrait at the Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., October 7, 2022. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday invited Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to testify next month before the panel about ethics reform of the court. Last week, the same news outlet reported that Thomas failed to disclose that Crow had purchased property from Thomas and his relatives, which included a house where Thomas' mother still lives. In his letter Thursday to Roberts, Durbin wrote, "Your last significant discussion of how Supreme Court Justices address ethical issues was presented in your 2011 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary." A Supreme Court spokeswoman did not immediately respond to CNBC when asked if Roberts would accept Durbin's invitation to appear before the committee.

☆ Harlan Crow Is ‘Collateral Damage’ of a Smear Campaign Against Clarence Thomas
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Barton Swaim | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: The week's best and worst from Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson and Dan Henninger. Images: Reuters/Shutterstock Composite: Mark KellyDallasAmerican politics lately feels like an endless game of—pardon the infelicitous word—delegitimation. The aim isn’t to convince voters that a political adversary is wrong or misguided, or even that he’s stupid or lying. It’s to assure the like-minded that he has no legitimate place in the public square and to drive him out if possible.

☆ Clarence Thomas inspires pizza chain promo deal that made 'every pie on sale, just like' the Supreme Court Justice following report he accepted vacations from GOP donor
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A ProPublica report last week revealed Justice Thomas accepted lavish vacations from a GOP donor. A Washington DC-based pizza chain emailed customers with a reference to Thomas accepting the vacations to promote a sale, Fox reported. The &pizza chain often uses its social media accounts to post memes related to politics and popular culture. "Every pie on sale, Just like Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas," it reportedly read. Two weeks prior to their Thomas-themed sale, &pizza Instagram account published a photo of Donald Trump captioned, "Today's weather forecast: Stormy."

☆ GOP senators defend Clarence Thomas' billionaire benefactor's Nazi memorabilia collection: 'Harlan Crow's a terrific person'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The GOP megadonor also keeps Nazi artifacts at his Dallas home, where he's hosted fundraisers. In interviews with Insider at the Capitol on Tuesday, several of them defended the Republican megadonor amid broad scrutiny of his taste in historical artifacts. The Texas senator argued that the media is "deliberately" mischaracterizing the nature of Crow's collection in order to tarnish Justice Thomas' reputation. 'He's not a drug dealer or cocaine trafficker'Crow also collects other historical artifacts, including thousands of documents, books, and historical artifacts pertaining to American history. But when asked about Crow's Nazi memorabilia and dictator sculptures, Ernst said she had "no idea" about it.

WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday grappled with a convicted stalker's claim that thousands of unwanted Facebook messages he sent to a female musician in Colorado were protected speech in a case testing the limits of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment safeguards. Rather, Counterman was convicted based on a showing that his messages would cause a "reasonable person" serious distress, a so-called objective legal standard. Counterman, citing mental illness and delusions, argued his statements were never intended to be threatening and were thus protected speech. The First Amendment prohibits the government from enacting laws "abridging the freedom of speech," but the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that the provision does not protect true threats. His appeal was rejected by the Colorado Court of Appeals.

☆ Late Night Skewers Clarence Thomas for Not Disclosing Gifts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Trish Bendix | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now. The Best of FriendsJustice Clarence Thomas is under fire for unreported gifts, trips and other financial transactions with the conservative donor Harlan Crow. On Monday, the “Daily Show” guest host Jordan Klepper joked that Thomas is “the Supreme Court justice who’s taken more free vacations than all the Bravo housewives combined.”

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