Was Clarence Thomas Fooling Us Then or Now?

If there is one thing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas claims to believe, it’s that words matter.

As the court’s leading originalist, he insists that he can identify definite meanings from the opaque language of the Constitution, which was written in 1787. When it comes to his own financial disclosures, however, Thomas evidently expects us to forget what he said just last year, no matter how definitive it seemed at the time, in favor of a flatly contradictory new explanation. Although he is adamant in rejecting a “living Constitution,” he appears to be an advocate of evolving explanations.

In April 2023, ProPublica revealed that Thomas and his wife had often taken luxury vacations as the guests of billionaire Harlan Crow, a major donor to Republican candidates and conservative causes, including “nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef” in 2019.