By Nate Raymond (NS:RYMD)
(Reuters) -A judicial policymaking body on Thursday rejected a request by Democratic lawmakers to refer conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to the Department of Justice to examine claims that he failed to disclose gifts and travel provided by a wealthy benefactor.
The secretary to the U.S. Judicial Conference, the federal judiciary's top policymaking body, in a pair of letters cited amendments Thomas had made to his annual financial disclosure reports that addressed several issues raised by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Hank Johnson.
The conference also in a separate letter rejected a conservative group's request to similarly refer liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Justice Department based on omissions in her own disclosure reports.
Jackson has since amended her reports, the letter noted. The letter was addressed to the Center for Renewing America's president, Russell Vought, Republican President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
In a statement, Whitehouse criticized the judicial branch's response to his request concerning Thomas, saying it was "shirking its statutory duty to hold a Supreme Court justice accountable for ethics violations."
Center for Renewing America spokesperson Rachel Cauley in a statement called it a "sad commentary" that a think tank had to file a complaint to affect change and get ethics disclosure issues involving a liberal justice covered in the news media.
The justices did not respond to requests for comment.
The Democratic lawmakers had made their request concerning Thomas, a member of the Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority, in an April 2023 letter following reports by ProPublica and others that he had not reported gifts including luxury travel from wealthy Texas businessman Harlan Crow.
Their letter argued that a referral to the Justice Department was warranted on the grounds that Thomas had willfully failed to comply with the financial disclosure requirements of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978.
Thomas has said he had been advised he did not have to report that type of "personal hospitality" and promised to do so in the future starting with his 2022 annual report, which was filed in August 2023.
U.S. District Judge Robert Conrad, who heads the judiciary's administrative arm and acts as the Judicial Conference's secretary, wrote that the judiciary had been busy since 2023 updating its financial disclosure requirements and making clear when the personal hospitality exemption does not apply.
He said Thomas had filed amended financial disclosure reports since the issues first emerged and that he had agreed to follow the relevant guidance issued to other federal judges, including the new policies.
"We have no reason to believe he has done anything less," Conrad wrote.
In declining to make a referral to the Justice Department, Conrad cited "constitutional questions" about whether the Judicial Conference could do so that require further study.
He also said the lawmakers' request was mooted when Whitehouse and another senator wrote directly to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking him to appoint a special counsel to investigate the same matters.