The answer is simply that if you are in a position of power you should not be allowed to accept gifts, with very limited exceptions. I have to take ethics training on this topic every year and I am not in a position of any sort of power. If I did as Thomas did, I would be fired / prosecuted
I fully agree, and SCOTUS should be required to abide the same ethics standards as the rest of the judiciary. This piece of the puzzle has always just seemed odd to me. What's the value that Crow is buying?
10% of his liability in a single case brought before the court is a pretty good return on investment. that's the very first example in a search of "crow thomas gift ruling", i'm sure you can easily find more if you aren't JAQing off
Favorable disposition. More generally, if you are running a corruption ring, you have to make sure that the corruption keeps flowing to the people in the ring to maintain it. Crow is funding such a ring, and has been for a long time. Leonard Leo has been facilitating it for decades.
Keep in mind this entire scandal was given the OK by SCOTUS. Why? Because they profit from it. It's the oldest sort of corruption there is: Any insider network that buys friends in high places