'It's a vicious cycle that can only be short-circuited by restoring meaningful campaign finance rules and by demanding a much fairer share of taxes from billionaires, which, among other good results, will leave them less money to distort our democratic process,' Kass added. 'The Crows used their fortune to buy access to and curry favor with one of the most powerful officials in Washington, then benefited from his central role in loosening rules meant to limit the influence of money over politics and policy,' said ATF executive director David Kass. While Thomas and Crow have denied any impropriety, recent revelations about their relationship have fueled fresh calls for the conservative justice to resign or face impeachment proceedings. In ' Travel Rewards: What the Crow Family May Have Bought by Hosting Those Luxury Trips for Justice Thomas,' ATF shows how Thomas' vote in the 5-4 decision that effectively legalized unlimited political spending has allowed the Crows to increase their average annual campaign contributions by 862%, from $163,241 pre- Citizens United to $1.57 million post-ruling. Federal Election Commission case, the Crow family's ability to influence federal elections has increased by a factor of almost nine, according to an Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) analysis of campaign finance data. Since Thomas provided a deciding vote in the 2010 Citizens United v.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with lavish vacations and other undisclosed gifts. Feel free to republish and share widely.Ī report published Monday highlights potential connections between the political influence of Harlan Crow's family and the billionaire GOP megadonor's yearslong endeavor to shower U.S. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. This article originally appeared at Common Dreams.

Tapping the billionaire