Sternly worded letter incoming
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Hey, it’s a free country.
If you don’t like it go buy your own Supreme Court Justice.
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Jesus - we really need strong corruption laws. Gifts and insider trading is just a start.
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Is the fine, upstanding gentleman on the far left of the painting also the newly-defeated sore-loser of the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, Ex-Judge Kelly? Cuz it sure looks like him!
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right? the article has actual photographs, and propublica has witnesses and records of the actual flights. not that there was any doubt, but there’s no doubt. 
the thing is, this is illegal. one of the specific things mentioned by law is gifting transportation: private jets and mega yachts definitely fit that bill. ( the other gifts probably count too, but flights are specifically mentioned, so… )
he also knew enough to declare it exactly one time - and then never again. so he absolutely was not declaring the gifts on purpose.
eta: ethics rules would say “don’t do this”, meanwhile the law says: “if you do this, you have to declare it.”
from the article it sounds like, on occasion, thomas has been using crow’s private jet to shuttle around the country. separate from the vacations. they were estimating each of those short flights to be something like 7k a piece or so
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No, ICYMI:
Moreover,
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We all know that any Republican majority will slow-walk any accountability for a right wing justice until there is a Republican president again.
I wonder if this could be used to justify reopening a lot of 1-vote decisions where Thomas was on the majority side? If someone is flagrantly influence peddling doesn’t that mean their decisions must be reconsidered?
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I don’t think I’ve seen this mentioned, but there is a $17,000 per year exemption on paying taxes on gifts. Over that you owe taxes. If Thomas has not been declaring and paying this he is clearly violating tax laws.
If he has been, then that provides evidence of both the size of his bribes and that he was aware he was being bribed (I assume that he has not been because laws are for other people)
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Reportedly many Democrats are reluctant to do anything, because they don’t want to “erode trust in the Supreme Court,” as if the blatant corruption (and blatantly partisan wish-fulfillment masquerading, unconvincingly, as legal judgement) wasn’t the whole reason people don’t have trust in the court. Trust in an institution isn’t unconditional, guys - you have to actually show you’re trustworthy, and you haven’t.
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Except gift taxes are levied on the gift-giver, not the recipient. I can give you $20K and I would be responsible for paying taxes on $3K (assuming I don’t dig into my lifetime exception). Mr Crow, like all billionaires, would have already used up his lifetime exemption as part of estate planning, but the tax would be owed by him.
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Oh, not being a person that receives large gifts (or has the ability to give them), I assumed that it was the receiver who paid it. Seems weird given that the receiver’s income level is being increased while the giver’s decreased. I think that’s an exception to every other transfer of wealth that I’m aware of, but then again, not my wheelhouse. Thanks!
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Maybe the DOJ can’t go after Thomas, but they can go after Crow. Bribery is a crime for both the briber and the bribee.
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It’s not that it has to be this way, but there are certain logical requirements of the tax code. The tax code’s logic requires (or least strongly favors) that every transaction be the same thing to both sides of the equation. The IRS wants every dollar to be taxed (or not) and treating as a specific thing helps that. When that breaks down and it can have character A to one party and character B to another, you get weird results like IP profits stacking up in Ireland (a longer subject for another day), but suffice it to say the IRS is pretty clear that a transfer be the same thing all through the system and since gifts mostly relate to an inheritance tax and estate planning, they get treated in that same universe. But recall, too, that the gift tax is taxed at the post-exemption inheritance rate (assuming you have used up or don’t use your lifetime exemption for a given gift) – is steeper than income taxes in general (this is not to start an argument about the size of the exemption, just know that at a certain point the taxes are steeper) – so you don’t want the option of it being income tax to one person or a gift tax to the other. That way lies madness (and IRS No Action Letters).
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I can see that this is your wheelhouse! Thanks again!
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Excellent - much obliged; I only recognized Thomas and Leo. The resemblance to Kelly was uncanny. They are all scoundrels, bless their hearts.
[I could swear that John Danforth was Thomas’s usher/point man for his confirmation, but NBD]
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Nothing’s gonna happen I hope I’m wrong I’m pretty sure I’m not.
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Oh, I’m positive you’re right. The GOP isn’t going to say shit about this, and without any of them joining the calls to do something, no action will be taken. Just another chance for We, the People, to witness how very fucking corrupt conservatives in this country have become, and how little our system can do about it.
Welcome to the New Gilded Age, already in full swing. The inevitable collapse is coming.
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Jesus, I’m not a boat type but that offends me. Don’t do that. You will end up in the water.
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