Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Complained So Often About His ‘Low’ $300,000 Salary, Conservatives Feared He’d Resign

In January 2000, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas told Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Florida) that Congress should be giving Supreme Court justices pay raises.

He even mentioned that if lawmakers did not take action, then one justice or more would resign, maybe in the next year.

He sat next to Stearns on his flight home from Georgia, and the representative exited the conversation fearing that Thomas would resign.

Thomas, who is known for his expensive tastes, was previously staying at a five-star beach resort in Sea Island, Georgia.

He went to this resort to deliver a private keynote speech at Awakening, a “conservative thought weekend” that featured golf, shooting lessons and aromatherapy in addition to panel discussions with businessmen and elected officials.

When Thomas made this statement, his salary was $173,000, which is equal to $300,000 today. However, he was one of the least wealthy court members and was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

On numerous occasions during that time, Thomas tried making more money in different ways. In other private conversations, he continuously discussed removing a ban on justices delivering paid speeches.

Congress did not lift this ban on speaking fees or grant justices a larger raise.

Despite this, the following years showed that Thomas accepted many gifts from friends and acquaintances, including vacations on the superyacht of Dallas real estate billionaire, Harlan Crow.

No one knows what made people offer Thomas so many gifts. There is no proof that he inspired the concern of resigning with Crow or his other wealthy donors.

Stearns was a vocal conservative who was in Congress for 11 years and often talked with Thomas.

“His importance as a conservative was paramount,” Stearns said, according to ProPublica. “We wanted to make sure he felt comfortable in his job and he was being paid properly.”

Thomas was 43 years old when he was appointed to the court in 1991. He spent most of his adult life working for the government. He claimed that, during that time, he still had student loans from law school.

Full details regarding Thomas’ finances over the years have not been clear. He made a minimum of two large purchases at some point in the early ’90s – a Corvette and a house in the suburban area of Virginia on five acres of land.

Property records have shown that when Thomas and his wife, Ginni, bought the home for $522,000 a year after he became a court member, they borrowed all but $8,000, which was less than 2% of the purchase price.

Throughout the first ten years of his tenure, this couple frequently borrowed more money, such as a $100,000 credit line on their house and a consumer loan of nearly $50,000.

Stearns responded to the concern of justices resigning by writing a letter to Thomas after the flight in which he promised to write a bill that raised the salaries of Supreme Court justices.

“As we agreed, it is worth a lot to Americans to have the Constitution properly interpreted,” Stearns wrote. “We must have the proper incentives here, too.”

Stearns’ office soon turned to a lobbying firm working on the issue for help, and he gave a speech on the House floor about judges’ salaries being diminished by inflation.

Thomas once referred to government salaries back in 2001 during a speech in which he praised the value of public service.

“The job is not worth doing for what they pay. It’s not worth doing for the grief,” he said. “But it is worth doing for the principle.”

During his second decade on the court, Thomas’ financial problems seem to have improved. In 2003, he received the primary payments of a $1,500,000 million advance for his memoir, which, at the time, was a record-breaking sum for justices. He also received many expensive gifts throughout the ’00’s from conservative benefactors.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has begun investigating Thomas’ wealthy friends for potential influence peddling.

Thomas remains a divisive figure. In 2022, Samuel L. Jackson called out Thomas for not addressing his views on Loving V. Virginia, the Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage, even though Thomas is in an interracial marriage.

In July 2022, over 11,000 people petitioned to remove a debate class that Thomas taught at the George Washington University Law School.