Washington, D.C. – In response to the latest ProPublica reporting about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ corruption and connections to the fossil fuel industry, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) issued the following statement from Senior Director of Judiciary & Democracy Doug Lindner:

“The latest revelations about Clarence Thomas’ connections to oil billionaire and far-right megadonor Charles Koch reach beyond the many prior reports of his corruption. Justice Thomas has attended and spoken at multiple fundraisers for the Koch political operation and spent years vacationing with Koch, Harlan Crow, and other benefactors at the secretive Bohemian Grove retreat.

“The massive, oil-funded Koch operation supports anti-environment, anti-democracy politicians and judges, and is currently working to roll back the core administrative law doctrine of Chevron deference, backing the plaintiffs in the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. This is a concerted effort to weaken the ability of the EPA and other public-interest agencies to do the jobs Congress created them for, and Thomas has recently gone back on his previous support of the Chevron doctrine to publicly and privately hint that he is ready to overturn it. 

“These revelations renew the clarion call for the U.S. Supreme Court to be held to a binding code of ethics. Congress must now pass legislation including the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act to ensure the highest court in the nation does not operate with the lowest ethical standards. Thomas’ corruption is so shocking and pervasive that we have previously called on him to resign. In the wake of these latest reports, Thomas must at least recuse himself from Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.”

###