Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' Financial Scandals Have Folks Curious About His Net Worth

The Gist:

• Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has incited much controversy before and since assuming office in 1991.
• A recent expose on Thomas reveals a history of accepting gifts and financial struggle.
• The scandal has raised questions about his net worth.

The justices who currently preside over the United States Supreme Court have generated plenty of controversy in 2023 alone, to say nothing of their long-standing history of conservative policymaking. This year, the court made highly divisive rulings over student loans, gay rights, and voting rights as the majority of the current justices largely favor right-wing decisions.

While each justice is deserving of some serious scrutiny, Clarence Thomas has certainly been no darling of US citizens.

Clarence Thomas is one of the six conservative justices currently serving on the Supreme Court. Despite being the second Black justice to serve on the Supreme Court, he has a long-standing voting history in which he actively fights back against civil rights on various fronts. However, a major financial scandal has folks curious about his current net worth. Here's what we know so far.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Clarence Thomas' current net worth stands at approximately $1 million. Overall, he reportedly earns significantly less than his fellow justices. His salary, however, has been a major point of contention.

In April 2023, Bloomberg reported that the US Supreme Court has a total net worth that lies between $24 million and $68 million in assets, though federal ethics laws supposedly prevent details of their financial assets from being made public.

That said, as of 2023, chief justices of the Supreme Court reportedly make over $286,700 annually. Associate justices make $274,200.

Yet despite the chokehold that the Supreme Court has over the financial situations over US citizens, Clarence Thomas has proven to be shockingly stingy about his own standing having reportedly made less than his coleagues.

In late December 2023, ProPublica published an expose that places Thomas in some serious hot water.

According to the report, Thomas had approached some of his rich friends while he was in serious financial debt. He'd spoken to a Republican Congress member and threatened to step down from the Supreme Court if the justices were not given raises. At the time, he was earning $173,600, which would amount to more than $300,000 when adjusted for modern inflation.

Following this threat and Congress' subsequent lack of action, Thomas had apparently accepted an unprecedented number of gifts that ranged from tires to lavish vacations and even private school tuition.

As Democratic lawmakers continue to call for ethics reforms for conservative justices, Thomas' new scandal has raised concerns over the potential of political bribery, though Thomas' friends vehemently deny these claims.