Originally published at: Sounds Like There Were More Harlan Crow Flights
As part of his committee’s investigation into the friendly relationship between conservative megadonor Harlan Crow and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) revealed in a letter on Monday yet another unreported instance of luxury travel that, it appears, Crow gifted Thomas. Writing to Crow’s attorney, Wyden said that his…
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Bravo, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse!!
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Just run-of-the-mill MAGAt corruption.
In 1999, Thomas took a $267,230 loan from health insurance executive Anthony Welters to buy a motor coach, a term he will defend more vehemently than the well-being of the nation’s populace. Welters was CEO of AmeriChoice when he gave Thomas the loan. The executive claims it was just money given to a friend… who happened to serve on the Supreme Court when they met. The HMO would be acquired by UnitedHealth in 2002, where he remained an executive. While Justice Thomas recused himself from two cases involving UnitedHealth, Rolling Stone found that not only he participated in a case but he also wrote the court’s unanimous decision.
Aetna Health Inc. v. Davila, the 2004 case in question, confirmed that insurers couldn’t be held liable for malpractice when the health plan denies life-saving or medically necessary treatment. While UnitedHealth wasn’t a named party in the case, the decision had massive ramifications for the entire healthcare industry. Coincidentally, Welters extended Thomas’ loan by a decade in 2004, and it was eventually forgiven in 2008. Rolling Stone spoke with one of the lawyers from the case:
George Parker Young was the lawyer for the patients in Aetna Health. After the decision, he says, he stopped handling cases suing health insurers on behalf of patients and doctors. “I just got out of it,” he says. “It had been 100 percent of my cases, and I wound up that docket.”Young notes the Supreme Court’s decision was unanimous, and his clients may well have lost 8-0 if Thomas had recused himself in the case — instead of authoring the opinion. “What I won’t do … is say, ‘Oh my gosh, if Justice Thomas had recused, I would have won that case.’ I can’t say that, and that would be disingenuous for me to say that,” he says. But looking back now at the RV loan provided by Welters, Young says, “It does stink.” He says if he knew about the loan during the case, “I would have moved to recuse,” adding that “there’s no question this case was going to impact all national HMOs that did any kind of employer-based health care.”
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Thomas & Alito should be forced off the Court. How can this be done? Biden could simply exercise his “core” duty and have both arrested and shipped to Gitmo, and both must resign as a condition of release.
The MAGA 6 made President Biden above the law, amirite?
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Look into his past and you’ll find a couch-fucker
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I loved him in Indiana Jones!
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Yeah, you can’t give a SCOTUS Justice just a $100 gift card and box of Costco candy like I give to my mail carrier.
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That’s Sofa King funny! 
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Let’s say Clarence was a bus driver. Would he command the undying love and respect of these same billionaires? Is he so engaging that multitudes are drawn to him just like Jesus? ( who did not take bribes, er, gratuities)
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Wow! That’s pretty harsh.
Let’s do it!
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Having proven himself corrupt, all of the opinions he was part of need to be struck and re-examined.
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He has a face like a burst settee.
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You are the finest post office customer in history.
Now I feel bad.
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All these assholes wear their robes like NASCAR endorsements. “Come look at who bought me and how I’ll rule.”
But when it comes to Thomas, I’m pretty sure he beats the bunch when it comes to self-dealing in bribes and graft. He’s in a category of his own.
Sickening.
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Postal Service workers and public school teacher are the most demonized essential workers in this country. I have always made sure that all my daughters’ teachers and the lady that has delivered our mail since we moved to this house feel appreciated.
Edit: And the school bus drivers as well.
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Speaker Jeffries will introduce, and the House will pass, Majority Leader Shumer will introduce, and the Senate will pass, and President Harris will sign into law a fundamental reformation of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Republicans will cry. Donald Trump will be on his way to prison. Angels will rejoice.
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