John Oliver offers to pay Clarence Thomas $1m a year if he resigns from supreme court
John Oliver offers to pay Clarence Thomas $1m a year if he resigns from supreme court
Late-night host gives justice, under fire over undisclosed donations, 30 days to accept offer, which includes a tour bus
Oliver made the proposal on Sunday’s episode of his HBO show Last Week Tonight, saying the supreme court justice had 30 days to accept or it would expire.
The British-born comedian’s offer came after a steady drumbeat of media investigations in the previous several months established that Thomas failed to disclose that political benefactors bought him lavish vacation travel and real estate for his mother. Thomas also failed to disclose – as required – that he allowed school fees for a family member to be paid off and had been provided a loan to buy a luxury motor coach, all after openly complaining about the need to raise supreme court justices’ salaries.
As a result, Thomas’s impartiality came into question after he sided with the contentious ruling that eliminated the federal abortion rights once provided by the Roe v Wade case.
He also recently listened to arguments over whether Donald Trump can be removed from states’ ballots in the presidential election after the former president’s supporters – whom he told to “fight like hell” – staged the January 6 attack at the US Capitol in Washington DC. Thomas resisted pressure to recuse himself from such matters, even though his wife, Ginni Thomas, is a conservative political activist who has endorsed false claims from Trump and his supporters that the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden was stolen from him.
Associate Supreme Court Justice annual salary: $285,400
So if he turns it down, he either really likes being a judge (he doesn't act like it) or he's got a financial incentive beyond his salary to stay.
And I'm guessing he'll turn it down.
We're stuck with him till 2034 at least, he had this to say following his confirmation:
"The liberals made my life miserable for 43 years," a former clerk renmembered Thomas who was 43 years old when confirmed saying, according to The New York Times. "And I'm going to make their lives miserable for 43 years."
I dunno. Oliver has guaranteed him a cool $1mil per year, until either Thomas or John dies (out of his own pocket no less!!), AND thrown in a brand new, top of the line Prevost Marathon motor coach.
It's a mouth-watering deal.
Third option: he turns it down because he likes STIGGINIT too much.
What's funny is, NPR did an interview with a guy who wrote a book on Thomas, and one of the things he points out is how much Thomas hates affirmative action because of a deep-seated insecurity about his own accomplishments.
Which becomes the ultimate irony: the only reason Thomas is on SCOTUS is because Republicans wanted a black man to replace Thurgood Marshall, but without all the pesky "morals" and "ethics." In other words, he obtained the pinnacle of his career... Because of his skin color.
No wonder he hates himself.
I truly believe Uncle Ruckus from The Boondocks is the best portrayal of Thomas anyone has done.
Even if he decided it was a good deal, if he cares about the legacy of his past decisions at least seeming legitimate, he has to turn it down. We all know he’s for sale, but he loses deniability if he straight up sells out.
Putin has deep pockets.
Don't even need to sell yourself to foreign actors. There's plenty of cash floating around the Microsofts, Eli Lillys, Berkshire Hathaways, Proctor & Gambles, et al.
You can take all the "lobbying" you want and remain a Faithful Patriotic Americantm
And you think that’s all the money he’s getting?
That was my point. Turning it down either means he just loves judging so much that he's willing to do it until he dies or he has a financial incentive worth more than a million dollars a year.
We don’t deserve John Oliver. He is too good and pure.
I'm convinced that Stewart retired cause Oliver stole the source of his power when he left TDS to go to HBO.
I'm just annoyed HBOMax is now delaying pushing John Oliver's segments to YouTube but I guess it was inevitable...
Ah that's why it didn't show up yet. Enshittyfication.
BitTorrent's pretty good. YouTube kind of sucks a lot
Fuck YouTube. Who cares? That platform needs to go. Hopefully more people do this.
EDIT: I wonder how many of the people giving me all these the pointless down arrows are the same ones that complain every time a news article shows how shitty YouTube is to its patrons.
I’m stealing this joke from someone I saw on bluesky or Masto (I forget), but:
Why would he take a pay cut?
Thomas is just going to use this to negotiate better pay from his existing benefactors...
That is fine too. Better be more expensive for them.
However, I'm rather inclined to suspect that they have enough "blackmail" over the course of his life's proclivity (including some before he even became a judge) hence money is probably not going to sway him that much.
This expense probably doesn't even register on their radars.
I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t take it.
- It’s likely a bigger bribe than he’s already getting.
- He’s old and probably tired of working.
- it’s an election season and republicans will just stall any new appointments to replace him until after the election.
Are you joking?
The money probably isn't most of it. Thomas likes the power. He could make more in Congress through insider trading and bribes and then retire. Fucko likes putting his dick on the scale of history to hurt the kind of people he's used to be: poor.
I don't think he'll take it, not because he doesn't want to, but he's acutely aware that public confidence in the judicial system right now is at the lowest it has ever been. Accepting this deal would do even further damage to the image of the court's impartiality and his own legacy. It would send a message to the nation that the US Supreme Court seats can be bought and have a price, even if they are technically not allowed to accept bribes or gifts for favorable rulings.
Power can be more addicting than money.
The hero we want and need. Bless you John Oliver!
Even if this did top his current bribes, I can't seem him walking away from the power.
Just fundraise like 100 mil to get trump out of the race. Totally worth it and hes gonna take it with both hands.
He'd take the money and stay in the race
Yeah. He'd just fight the suit in court for years. And then when ordered to repay her could and have lived off they interest if they didn't somehow seize it into escrow.
You put it in an escrow account with the condition being that he drops out to get it.
Heres an idea. We give trump and others like elon literally all the money in the world, every single cent.
The economy would collapse in an instant and we can take of our own neighborhoods and communities without needing a money insensitive while the rich can drown in their valueless wealth.
/non-literal
This is very interesting. With all the crowd funding methods, would it be theoretically possible to put something like this together? Granted, the person has to accept, but imagine being able to pay a politician to just disappear.
Yes, but Trump isn't the only problem we're facing. And a lot of the other problems have a path through the supreme court. Let's do both.
I bet nations will also donate to the cause with millions. Fuck it, Ukraine could hand in all that money themselves and itll be worth it for them.
I didn't realize the show was back. Outstanding work. The Trump-packed courts are the reason I don't think the USA can be fixed during my lifetime and will only get worse.
Trump had nothing to do with Clarance Thomas, he's been in since the 90s
Trump put 3 of his own on it tho.
I saw this last night! ROFL! John Oliver kept asking how it was legal for him to make the offer! lol. I kinda hope Justice Thomas takes the offer.
Contracts can do pretty much anything legal. This is offering money to not work and penalties for this round be repayment. So there isn't a lot of risk involved at long as someone doesn't try to screw to receiver through bad contractual language.
John was aiming more for the "I can bribe a SCOTUS judge to quit the court and not get into trouble???" part of it.
Cool, but the Republicans would just block any appointments until after the election, like they did with Garland.
Not a chance. That recipient of dei benefits believes he is entitled to tell us what to do forever.