Senate Democrats Debate Need for Supreme Court Ethics Hearing After Outrage Over Justice Thomas’ Gifts and Luxury Travel

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has expressed outrage over the revelation that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has received 20 years of gifts and luxury travel from billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow. Durbin, who is also the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is considering a hearing on Supreme Court ethics in response.

However, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said that Republicans will not help Democrats temporarily replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee while she recovers from an illness, effectively blocking any hopes Democrats had of pushing through judicial nominations.

McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday that Republicans would not “take part in sidelining a temporarily absent colleague off a committee just so Democrats can force through their very worst nominees.” Feinstein has missed dozens of votes since her illness began.

Durbin said he has “a number of things in mind” that he’s discussing with committee members, but he was pessimistic about getting Thomas to testify. He added that the failure to disclose Crow’s real estate deals and reported purchase of Thomas’s mother’s home was “beyond anything I could imagine at the Supreme Court level.”

The revelations about Thomas’s gifts and luxury travel have sparked a debate among Senate Democrats over the need for a hearing on Supreme Court ethics. Durbin has expressed outrage over the situation, while McConnell has made it clear that Republicans will not help Democrats push through judicial nominations while Feinstein is absent. It remains to be seen how the situation will be resolved.