And You Thought Judges Were Underpaid?

LA Times reports that Justice Clarence Thomas is truly grateful to the people of the United States. He better be, anyway, given that he has accepted more than $42,000 in gifts from the people in the past six years, more than any other Justice. And they are good gifts too:

$1,200 worth of tires, valuable historical items and a $5,000 personal check to help pay a relative's education expenses ... a Bible once owned by the 19th century author and abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass, which Thomas valued at $19,000, and a bust of President Lincoln valued at $15,000 ... [and] a free trip aboard a private jet to the exclusive Bohemian Grove club in Northern California — arranged by a wealthy Texas real estate investor who helped run an advocacy group that filed briefs with the Supreme Court.

I'm less worried, though, because John Yoo, law professor at UC Berkeley, has figured out that whatever concern I might have over Thomas' behavior is just my conscience running amok: "This reflects a bizarre effort to over-ethicize everyday life. If one of these people were to appear before the Supreme Court, Justice Thomas would recuse himself."

Let's hope Yoo doesn't teach legal ethics.