"Friends of the Court," ProPublica's investigation into Supreme Court justices' beneficial relationships with billionaire donors, has been awarded the #Pulitzer Prize for Public Service!
Here are the highlights from the reporting (THREAD)
2/ The series began with this story by Justin Elliott, Josh Kaplan & Alex Mierjeski that revealed how SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas had, for 20+ years, been treated to undisclosed luxury vacations by real estate titan and GOP megadonor Harlan Crow.
3/ Then they revealed that Crow had purchased multiple parcels of real estate from Thomas, including the house where the justice's mother still resides. Like the free travel, this deal had not been disclosed by Thomas.
4/ Thomas and his family also quietly benefited from Crow's largesse when the billionaire paid the pricey boarding school tuition for a grandnephew that the justice & his wife had been raising "as a son."
5/ Lest one think the connection between Crow and Thomas was unique, Brett Murphy & Alex Mierjeski found that a network of industry titans & ultrawealthy executives had treated Thomas to dozens of deluxe trips.
6/ Records and interviews also showed that the onset of Thomas' travels came after the justice, facing financial strain, privately pushed for a higher salary and to allow SCOTUS justices to take speaking fees.
7/ Thomas also attended at least 2 donor summits tied to the Koch network, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a political network involved in multiple cases before SCOTUS.
8/ Thomas wasn't alone in failing to disclose luxury getaways with ultrawealthy friends. This story revealed that Justice Samuel Alito had not disclosed an Alaskan fishing trip with a hedge fund manager who later had multiple cases heard by SCOTUS:
9/ The Judicial Conference, led by the SCOTUS chief justice, is tasked with policing federal jurists' ethics issues, but as Kirsten Berg & Brett Murphy showed, it has spent decades preserving perks, defending judges and thwarting outside oversight.
10/ In a statement, Crow previously told ProPublica he never sought to influence Thomas and the “hospitality” he’s given Thomas was “no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends.”
11/ Alito said that he was not required to disclose the gift, and that when the billionaire’s companies came before the court, Alito was unaware of his connection to the cases.
13/ A representative for the Koch network said Thomas was not “present for fundraising conversations” and that “The idea that attending a couple events to promote a book or give dinner remarks, as all the justices do, could somehow be undue influence just doesn’t hold water.”
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