A plan from Senate Democrats to subpoena two wealthy Supreme Court benefactors and a judicial activist who helped shape the court's current conservative majority is facing pushback from Republicans who have said they will block the attempt.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote Thursday to subpoena benefactors Robin Arkley II and Harlan Crow, along with activist Leonard Leo, to answer questions about some justices who accepted but didn't report real estate deals, gifts, and free luxury travel, reports The Washington Post.
But without Republican support, it will be difficult to enforce the subpoenas. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the Judiciary Committee's ranking Republican, has vowed that Republicans will block the effort and told Democrats to stay out of the business of the Supreme Court as it is in a separate branch of the government.
"You have lost your way," he commented about the Democrats' call for an investigation into the court. "I don't know why you did this."
Leo and Crow have pushed back against the demands from the Democrats, defending themselves and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito Jr., with letters from their attorneys accusing the committee of being invasive and saying their claims are based on politics.
Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., however, is seeking several details, including a list of transportation and lodging provided for any justices and their family members, information about allowing them access to members-only clubs, and an accounting of all gifts or payments worth more than $415 to any justices.
Leo, Arkley, and Crow are "not bit players in this crisis," Durbin said in a statement. "The information that they hold is critical to understanding how individuals and groups with business before the court gain private access to the justices."
Lisa Graves, a former chief counsel to the Judiciary Committee, told The Washington Post that Republicans will likely "use every tool available to stop this investigation from going forward."
The subpoena vote only requires a simple majority of the committee, so no Republican votes will be needed.
But if the subjects don't comply, the Senate can seek civil enforcement of the subpoenas through court, but that step would require a full Senate vote, meaning the measure could stall with Republican resistance.
The Senate could also refer those who fail to comply to the Justice Department for prosecution, as the House did last year to hold several advisers of former President Donald Trump in criminal contempt for defying subpoenas.
Alex Aronson, a former chief counsel to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and court accountability advocate, said there is nothing in the statute that requires a full Senate vote to make the referral to the Justice Department, although that has historically been the practice on the House side.
Federal ethics laws require top government officials, including court justices, to file annual financial disclosures concerning gifts, investments, and outside income sources.
Democrats and advocates for court transparency have criticized the Supreme Court for its lack of a binding ethics code specific to the justices and are pushing for strict disclosure rules.
The scrutiny grew after reports from ProPublica concerning Thomas and his failure to disclose luxury vacations and private jet travel, among other benefits, he got through Crow, a longtime friend.
The site also revealed that Leo arranged for Alito's 2008 luxury fishing trip to Alaska, with Arkley providing free lodging.
The justices said they did not think they were required to report the trips. When ethics rules were revised in March, Thomas disclosed he'd gone on three trips in 2022 on Crow's jet and listed a 2014 real estate sale to him.