Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas failed to report his wife’s income from conservative think tank Heritage Foundation on financial disclosure forms between 2003 and 2007, according to the watchdog group Common Cause. A longtime conservative activist, Virgina Thomas actually earned $686,589 during those years, but Thomas checked a box labeled “none” where “spousal noninvestment income” would be disclosed. Virginia Thomas has recently also been active in the group Liberty Central, and she’s believed to have been paid an unknown salary for her work there. However, in his 2009 disclosure, Justice Thomas also reported spousal income as “none” for that year. Federal judges are bound by law to disclose the source of spousal income, so Thomas’s failure to do so “could lead to some form of penalty,” according to a legal expert. Incidentally, Clarence Thomas has been the lone justice to argue that laws requiring public disclosure of large political contributions are unconstitutional.
Clarence Thomas failed to report wife’s income, watchdog says [LAT]
