November 6th 2023.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote on issuing subpoenas to two prominent Republican donors and a Conservative legal activist. This vote is scheduled to take place as soon as November 9th. The subpoenas are in light of a scandal in the summer of 2023 that revealed luxury trips gifted to two Supreme Court Justices.
The two Republican donors are Harlan Crow and Robin Arkley II. The legal activist is Leonard Leo, co-chairman of the board of directors of the Federalist Society. Leo played a key role in the confirmations of current Supreme Court Justices.
The subpoenas are requested by the Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman Dick Durbin and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. In a joint statement, they said it was “imperative that we understand the full extent of how people with interests before the Court are able to use undisclosed gifts to gain private access to the justices.” They went on to explain that by accepting these gifts, the justices have enabled people to gain access to them without public scrutiny.
The vote is entirely in the hands of Democrats, as their ten members of the Judiciary panel have the authorization to issue the subpoenas without any Republican support. Republican senators, however, feel this is an unfair attack against the Supreme Court, because of decisions Democrats have disagreed with.
The subpoenas are a result of an investigation by ProPublica that revealed ties between Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito with the donors. Thomas accepted lavish trips on Crow’s private plane and yacht, and spent vacations at his Adirondacks resort. He failed to report this on his financial disclosure forms.
Alito accepted a luxury fishing trip in Alaska in 2008, provided by Robin Arkley. He also failed to disclose this, noting that the trip didn’t need to be reported citing exceptions for personal hospitality.
The subpoenas are the Judiciary Committee’s attempt to investigate this scandal, and learn the full extent of how people are able to gain access to the justices while avoiding public scrutiny. The vote is set to take place on November 9th, so we will soon see the results of this investigation.
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