Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Accepted Private School Tuition Payments from Conservative GOP Megadonor Harlan Crow

A new report from ProPublica has revealed that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted private school tuition payments from conservative GOP megadonor Harlan Crow for his teenage grandnephew, Mark Martin.

In 2008, Justice Thomas decided to send his grandnephew to Hidden Lake Academy, a private boarding school in the foothills of northern Georgia. According to a former administrator at the school, Crow footed the $6,000-a-month tuition bill for the entire year. He also paid for Martin’s tuition at a second boarding school, Randolph-Macon Academy in Virginia, which happened to be Crow’s alma mater.

The total amount that Crow paid for Martin’s tuition over the years is unclear. However, Martin had lived with the justice and his wife in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. for the previous decade.

The news of Justice Thomas’ undisclosed gifts has raised questions about whether the payments were appropriate and if they violated the Code of Conduct for United States Judges. According to the code, judges are prohibited from accepting gifts from anyone with a “direct interest” in a case before the court.

The Supreme Court has yet to comment on the report. However, the news of Justice Thomas’ undisclosed gifts has sparked a debate about the ethics of accepting gifts from those with a direct interest in a case before the court.

This story first appeared at ProPublica. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.