Jane Mayer: Is Ginni Thomas a Threat to the Supreme Court?

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/is-ginni-thomas-a-threat-to-the-supreme-court

No paywall
https://archive.ph/Wseio

In December, Chief Justice John Roberts released his year-end report on the federal judiciary. According to a recent Gallup poll, the Supreme Court has its lowest public-approval rating in history—in part because it is viewed as being overly politicized. President Joe Biden recently established a bipartisan commission to consider reforms to the Court, and members of Congress have introduced legislation that would require Justices to adhere to the same types of ethics standards as other judges. Roberts’s report, however, defiantly warned everyone to back off. “The Judiciary’s power to manage its internal affairs insulates courts from inappropriate political influence,” he wrote. His statement followed a series of defensive speeches from members of the Court’s conservative wing, which now holds a super-majority of 6–3. Last fall, Justice Clarence Thomas, in an address at Notre Dame, accused the media of spreading the false notion that the Justices are merely politicians in robes. Such criticism, he said, “makes it sound as though you are just always going right to your personal preference,” adding, “They think you become like a politician!”

The claim that the Justices’ opinions are politically neutral is becoming increasingly hard to accept, especially from Thomas, whose wife, Virginia (Ginni) Thomas, is a vocal right-wing activist. She has declared that America is in existential danger because of the “deep state” and the “fascist left,” which includes “transsexual fascists.” Thomas, a lawyer who runs a small political-lobbying firm, Liberty Consulting, has become a prominent member of various hard-line groups. Her political activism has caused controversy for years. For the most part, it has been dismissed as the harmless action of an independent spouse. But now the Court appears likely to secure victories for her allies in a number of highly polarizing cases—on abortion, affirmative action, and gun rights.

Many Americans first became aware of Ginni Thomas’s activism on January 6, 2021. That morning, before the Stop the Steal rally in Washington, D.C., turned into an assault on the Capitol resulting in the deaths of at least five people, she cheered on the supporters of President Donald Trump who had gathered to overturn Biden’s election. In a Facebook post that went viral, she linked to a news item about the protest, writing, “love maga people!!!!” Shortly afterward, she posted about Ronald Reagan’s famous “A Time for Choosing” speech. Her next status update said, “god bless each of you standing up or praying.” Two days after the insurrection, she added a disclaimer to her feed, noting that she’d written the posts “before violence in US Capitol.” (The posts are no longer public.)

Later that January, the Washington Post revealed that she had also been agitating about Trump’s loss on a private Listserv, Thomas Clerk World, which includes former law clerks of Justice Thomas’s. The online discussion had been contentious. John Eastman, a former Thomas clerk and a key instigator of the lie that Trump actually won in 2020, was on the same side as Ginni Thomas, and he drew rebukes. According to the Post, Thomas eventually apologized to the group for causing internal rancor. Artemus Ward, a political scientist at Northern Illinois University and a co-author of “Sorcerers’ Apprentices,” a history of Supreme Court clerks, believes that the incident confirmed her outsized role. “Virginia Thomas has direct access to Thomas’s clerks,” Ward said. Clarence Thomas is now the Court’s senior member, having served for thirty years, and Ward estimates that there are “something like a hundred and twenty people on that Listserv.” In Ward’s view, they comprise “an élite right-wing commando movement.” Justice Thomas, he says, doesn’t post on the Listserv, but his wife “is advocating for things directly.” Ward added, “It’s unprecedented. I have never seen a Justice’s wife as involved.”

*snip*

[Mr.Bill]

1. Ginni Thomas is a threat to the United States.

She should be convicted of Treason and spend the rest of her life in prison like the rest of the mob who tried to overthrow our government.

[SheltieLover]

4. This!👆

[Docreed2003]

2. These jokers are only concerned about "political influence" when it is anything other than their own

[Jilly_in_VA]

3. Gee, ya think? /s

She's only been telling Uncle Clarence what he thinks for the last 30+ years. Or more.

[bluestarone]

5. Hell it's almost like we have

10 judges on the SC?

[Cha]

6. The Fascist Gaslit Fuck has Always

been a Threat to Democracy

💙💛

[Caliman73]

7. Clarence Thomas is a threat to the Supreme Court.

He is a partisan hack who is very likely in active collusion with his wife in her disgusting lobbying.

I would not lay this at her feet however. It is up to Clarence Thomas to put up the boundaries between his job and his wife's activities.

That would be like if I provided my wife with confidential information about my job, and the used it for her own gain or to advance an agenda that we both agreed with, then came back and said, "Well it is my wife who is the threat to my job". No, I am a threat to my job for not telling my wife, "You know that I cannot ethically and legally provide you with information, so please, never ask."

[world wide wally]

8. Take her out and shoot her

[Nevilledog]

9. That escalated quickly

[world wide wally]

10. A line from the Catch 22 movie