CNN: Group says 2 justices may have conflict of interest in election case

A liberal reform group has asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations of conflict of interest by Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

Washington-based Common Cause filed a petition Thursday with the Obama administration, urging that a controversial campaign finance reform decision be vacated because, the group says, the justices attended closed-door political gatherings sponsored by two top Republican donors and industrialists.

The request for a government probe comes exactly a year after the Supreme Court’s key ruling giving corporations — businesses, unions, and advocacy groups — more power to spend freely in federal elections, overturning long-standing congressional restrictions.

“It appears both justices have participated in political strategy sessions, perhaps while the case was pending,” said the Common Cause petition, “with corporate leaders whose political aims were advanced by the decision.”

The self-described “non-partisan, grass-roots organization” wants a fact-finding investigation to determine the extent of Scalia’s and Thomas’s participation, and to recommend the so-called “Citizens United” decision be nullified if any impropriety is uncovered.

In a conference call with reporters, Common Cause officials had few specifics on what the justices may have discussed at the private retreats, and when. But the New York Times reported invitations for a political retreat next week in California –sponsored by the same two GOP donors — mentioned past appearances by “notable leaders” like Scalia and Thomas, two of the most conservative justices on the nine-member court.

All federal judges are required to list on annual financial disclosure forms any out-of-town travel paid by private groups for speeches and other appearances. Both justices listed separate trips in 2007 and 2008 for gatherings they said were sponsored by the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group with reported ties to David and Charles Koch, who head their family-run energy company based in Wichita, Kansas. Koch Industries is one of the largest privately held firms in the United States.

Media reports in the past have mentioned Scalia’s and Thomas’s ties to the Kochs.

Source: CNN