> The Supreme Court justices have faced heavy criticism recently for accepting undisclosed gifts from wealthy patrons. Justice Clarence Thomas regularly took lavish vacations and private jet flights that were paid for by Texas billionaire Harlan Crow. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. took a fishing trip to Alaska in 2008 aboard a private plane owned by Paul Singer, a hedge fund billionaire.
Indeed. We grant these fine individuals a lifetime appointment to the most powerful court in the land. We pay them over a quarter million dollars a year. They need no charity, and it should be a hard requirement that they cannot accept gifts totaling more than, say, $250 from any individual person in a given year. If that is unacceptable, don't aspire to become a justice of the Supreme Court.
What an utter farce.