The Judicial Conference of the United States declined Thursday to refer an ethics investigation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to the Department of Justice (DOJ) over authority concerns and amended disclosures filed by the judge.

The refusal letter was sent to Democratic lawmakers who called for the body to advise the DOJ to investigate Justice Thomas for ethics violations regarding his failure to disclose various gifts from Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow. The body cited Thomas’s amended disclosures which reported the gifts from Crow and his agreement to follow new disclosure guidelines, as well as the open question of whether its referral authority “applies to Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States.”

The question, to be clear, is not whether the Ethics in Government Act applies to the Justices of the Court. It is whether the Judicial Conferences referral authority applies to the Justices. There is reason to doubt that the Conference has any such authority. Because the Judicial Conference does not superintend the Supreme Court and because any effort to grant the Conference such authority would raise serious constitutional intentions, one would expect Congress at a minimum to state any such directive clearly.

The letter further explained that the provision governing referral authority contained contrary evidence that the body’s referral authority did not extend to the Justices on the Supreme Court. Judge Robert Conrad who authored the letter also wrote that the referral request was rendered moot by Senator Ron Wyden’s request to the US Attorney General for a special counsel investigation.

Justice Thomas came under fire in 2023 after a series of ProPublica reports that alleged the justice failed to disclose various gifts from Libertarian political organizations, GOP donors, and other special interest groups that included; school tuition for family members; luxury vacations; private flights; tickets to sporting events; and expensive dinners.

The Supreme Court adopted a new ethics code after further reports showed other questionable conduct from the high court’s members.

The Judicial Conference of the United States is the national policymaking body for the federal court system and meets twice a year to consider administrative and policy issues affecting the judiciary. It was established in 1922 at the behest of  Chief Justice William Howard Taft. Other duties include making recommendations to Congress on issues affecting the judicial branch.