Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) blasted Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as “corrupt” in an MSNBC interview about the court’s recent decision to overturn a Trump-era bump stock ban. Justice Thomas has come under increasing scrutiny for gifts he has received from Republican superdonors, including billionaire Harlan Crow.
“You were too nice before,” Crockett said. Said Interview with Melissa Murray. “Clarence Thomas is corrupt. Period. No one can receive that amount of money and not be affected in some way.”
“There will definitely be a decision on November 5,” she added.
Earlier this week, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released information showing that Thomas had withheld information about three trips funded by Crow, and that Thomas had received approximately $4.2 million in gifts, significantly more than any other justice.
Mr. Thomas disputed the allegations, and his lawyer, Elliot S. Burke, said the information Mr. Crow disclosed fell under the “personal entertainment exemption.” Therefore, Mr. Thomas did not have to disclose the trip, he argued.
According to data compiled by Fix the Court, Thomas has received $4 million, or 193 gifts, since 2004. The group reported that Thomas may have received an additional 126 gifts, but could not confirm that this was true. Of the roughly 200 gifts, Thomas reported only 27.
Democrats have repeatedly criticized Justices Thomas and Samuel Alito for being biased in their rulings. In recent weeks, Justice Alito has come under fire for reports about flags flying in his home, including an upside-down American flag at his Alexandria, Virginia, home.
Justices Alito and Thomas played key roles in overturning the bump stock ban on Friday.
The court ruled 6-3 to overturn a bump stock ban put into place under the Trump administration in the wake of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, the deadliest in U.S. history, which left 60 people dead and hundreds injured.
The Trump and Biden administrations implemented the ban by having the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms classify semi-automatic rifles with bump stocks as machine guns, which are prohibited under federal law.
Thomas I have written Friday’s ruling said the federal government had interpreted the law too broadly.
“We conclude that [a] A semi-automatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a “machine gun” because it does not fire more than one bullet “by the single action of the trigger,” Thomas said. I wrote it by quoting Statutory definition.
Justice Alito, in his concurring opinion, said he believed the rule was invalid and that Congress could change the law if it chose to prohibit it.
“There is a simple solution to the difference in treatment of bump stocks and machine guns,” he wrote. “Congress can change the law. If the ATF had stuck to its previous interpretation, it probably would have done so already. Now that the situation is clear, Congress can act.”
But Crockett was not convinced by Alito’s opinion, saying he was “confident that Mr. Alito will find a reason why the law is unconstitutional in some way.”
“The gun manufacturers will win again,” she added.
Crockett’s comments came amid Democratic efforts to pass a Supreme Court ethics bill, which Democrats tried to introduce unanimously this week to the Assembly, but Republicans blocked it.
