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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last night, I announced that the Senate Judiciary Committee, which I chair, will vote to subpoena Harlan Crow, Robin Arkley, and Leonard Leo--two billionaire megadonors and one of their enablers--who sit at the center of the ethical crisis currently gripping the U.S. Supreme Court.

This vote is the next step in the committee's ongoing investigation on the ethics of the Supreme Court. It comes only after Mr. Crow refused to comply with committee requests and Mr. Leo and Arkley outright stonewalled the committee in the exercise of our constitutional authority.

For years--years--reports of ethical misconduct by individual Justices on the Court have raised serious concerns; but over the past year, a series of investigative reports have brought the long-simmering issue to a boil. Story after story has emerged about lavish gifts and luxury trips that Supreme Court Justices shamelessly accepted and failed to disclose. The reported behavior is unworthy of anyone in public office, and it has led to an historic loss of public confidence in the Supreme Court.

Some background here is necessary. Harlan Crow is a billionaire and a Republican megadonor. He first met Justice Clarence Thomas in the mid- 1990s after Thomas's confirmation to the Supreme Court. Not long after they met, Crow began to shower Justice Thomas with lavish gifts, flights on his private jet, invitations to an all-male, invitation-only private club, and a $19,000 Bible that once belonged to Frederick Douglass.

We know about these initial gifts because Justice Thomas listed them and disclosed them on the financial disclosure forms he was required to submit under Federal law, but those disclosures abruptly stopped in 2004, almost 20 years ago, after a Los Angeles Times report questioned their propriety.

We have since learned that Justice Thomas since continued to receive gifts from Crow that are staggering in both their number and value-- from additional flights on Crow's private jets to nearly annual stays at Crow's luxury camps and private clubs, to vacations on Crow's superyacht. Justice Thomas simply stopped disclosing these gifts to the American people.

But Harlan Crow is not the only billionaire bankrolling the lavish lifestyle of a Supreme Court Justice, and Justice Clarence Thomas is not the only Justice to accept improper gifts.

Let's turn to Robin Arkley. In 2008, Arkley hosted Justice Samuel Alito in his luxury fishing lodge in Alaska. There, Alito fished, flew on the lodge's bush planes, and enjoyed wine costing upwards of $1,000 a bottle--$1,000 a bottle. Justice Alito included none of this on his financial disclosure--nothing.

That 2008 luxury fishing trip was arranged by a man named Leonard Leo. Leo has been a longtime leader of the conservative Federalist Society and other far-right organizations. He is the key architect of the rightwing campaign to take over the Federal courts, facilitating relationships between political donors and Justices, championing conservative political causes, and wielding a shadowy network of influence over Federal and State judges.

How can a Supreme Court Justice accept such lavish gifts, let alone fail to disclose them to the American people? The answer is very simple: The Supreme Court of the United States, the highest court in the land, does not have an enforceable code of conduct. Unlike employees of the executive and legislative branches--virtually all of them--unlike Members of Congress and all other Federal judges, the nine Supreme Court Justices alone decide for themselves what conduct is and is not appropriate.

More than 11 years ago, I asked Chief Justice Roberts to adopt a binding code of conduct for all Supreme Court Justices. I have renewed that request repeatedly this year, including last month when I sat literally physically next to the Chief Justice and spoke at the Judicial Conference. Some Justices have now publicly joined the call for an ethics code. I do believe the majority of the Justices on the Supreme Court are embarrassed by these disclosures and want this to come to an end.

So far, Chief Justice John Roberts and the Court have failed to do anything. In the face of the Supreme Court's failure, the Senate Judiciary Committee has exercised its constitutional right and duty to investigate this ethical crisis in order to craft and advance legislation to address it.

Beginning in May, the committee has sent letters to a number of these billionaires, activists, and organizations connected to the undisclosed gifts and travel. I am sorry to say I happen to believe that we have just seen a small amount of the lavish gifts that have gone to the members of the Court. Thanks to the investigative efforts of journalists, as well as the Senate Finance Committee, we have discovered some of these things, but, sadly, I believe there is much more out there.

We are seeking details about what exactly has been given to these Supreme Court Justices as well as how certain individuals and groups that have business before the Court gained such enormous access to the private lives of these Justices. Getting this information is critical.

While there has been reporting on the Justices' ethical failures, I am sorry to say that there is more information out there we need to find.

Just last week--listen to this--the Senate Finance Committee revealed that yet another wealthy benefactor, Anthony Welters, had forgiven a $267,000 interest-only loan to Justice Thomas to purchase a luxury RV. Justice Thomas failed to disclose that.

So you understand what happened: The Justice, who seems to fancy these RVs, had his eye on one that cost over a quarter of a million dollars. Mr. Welters agreed to loan him the money to buy the RV. Justice Thomas made one annual payment of interest on that debt, and then the debt was forgiven. And so the RV is his, a gift from Mr. Welters.

While the loan itself had been the subject of prior reporting, it was only through the Finance Committee's investigation--and the cooperation of Mr. Welters, let me add--that the favorable terms of the loan and its ultimate forgiveness came to light. In contrast to Mr. Welters' willing cooperation, Leonard Leo, Harlan Crow, and Robin Arkley--more of these fawning billionaires--have produced no substantive response and have otherwise stalled the Judiciary Committee's investigation.

Instead, their responses offer a host of baseless arguments that ignore the committee's constitutional authority to inform its legislative efforts. Their defensive and dismissive response make you wonder, What are they trying to hide?

I am not going to stand idly by as these fawning billionaires, with interests before the Court, use their immense wealth to buy private access to the Justices and then deny the Senate Judiciary Committee information to which we are lawfully entitled. That is why the committee will vote to authorize subpoenas to these individuals.

This has been a long battle for many of us, and my colleague Senator Whitehouse has shown extraordinary leadership on this issue as well.

Eleven years ago, it came to my attention that the Supreme Court just didn't have a code of conduct. How can we justify this? Nine Justices on the highest Court in the land, no code of conduct. What about the other Federal judges? They are bound by a code of conduct. If the Justices on the Supreme Court merely assumed the same code of conduct, with some modifications, we would at least say they are making a step in the right direction, but they ignored it, and they resisted it. In fact, Justice Alito and Justice Thomas have been belligerent when they have been confronted with these issues; that it is no one's business but their own as to what they do with their private lives.

Unfortunately, when you accept a post in public service, that is not the case. Our private lives become part of that public service. And certainly, if there is any suggestion of a conflict in a situation where individuals--billionaires--who have an interest before the Court are buying access and time with these Justices, that is certainly relevant to our work in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Mr. President, as a member of the committee, you understand we have gone through this process very deliberately and patiently and slowly and reached a point where we believe subpoenaing this information is the only way to get the facts before the American people.

I am hoping that this is successful; I hope that it becomes bipartisan; and I hope that we bring to this Court the type of reputation which it has enjoyed over the years.

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