How does Justice Clarence Thomas look his colleagues in the eye after this?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Many Americans have grown increasingly numb from a seemingly endless stream of dispiriting stories highlighting our political leaders’ fading commitment to democracy. However, if anything has the potential to awaken us from our stupor of exhaustion, it must be the recent news that Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, attended the Jan. 6 populist rally at the Ellipse in Washington, which preceded that day's Capitol riot. Not to diminish voters’ very legitimate concerns about America’s elected officials, but politicians and political movements come and go. Without trust in the courts, American democracy does not stand a chance.

As the spouse of a Supreme Court justice, Thomas and her political activities have long raised eyebrows. Thomas is a conservative activist, with close ties to organizations that support many causes and positions that parallel cases that have appeared, and will continue to appear, before the court. It is rare, if not unheard of, for the spouse of a justice to play such a prominent and active role in partisan politics, if only because this might create the potential appearance of impropriety. A judge, of course, is expected to objectively apply the law, without a preconceived commitment to a particular outcome.

The American people, however, are not fools. While we may hope, and believe, that judges make their best effort to remain fair and impartial, people likely understand that the modern Supreme Court decides many issues that overlap with our most deeply held beliefs — whether it is gun rights or abortion, LGBTQ rights or religious freedom. Jan. 6, however, is entirely different terrain.

It turns out that Thomas not only sat on the board of an organization that promoted the dangerous fiction that the 2020 election was “stolen” from former President Donald Trump through fraud, she also attended the rally attempting to vindicate this paranoid propagandistic fantasy (and said she left before Trump took the stage). All the while, in what might resemble the coordinated efforts of synchronized swimmers, husband and wife seemingly sought to thwart the investigation into the democratically perilous events of Jan. 6. Ginni Thomas signed on to a letter seeking the expulsion of Republican Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger from the Republican conference for joining the House Jan. 6 investigation committee; Clarence Thomas was the sole dissenter — standing in opposition to the rest of the court, including its three Trump appointees — in a decision allowing for the release of Jan. 6-related documents to said committee.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-does-justice-clarence-thomas-look-his-colleagues-in-the-eye-after-this/ar-AAVgf4Y

[TreasonousBastard]

1. To be a fly on the wall during their private discussions of cases.

[2naSalit]

2. How could he before this?

Though I agree it is a far worse situation now that the cat's out of the bag. I suppose he'll receive approving nods from a few of his colleagues.

[Srkdqltr]

3. I'm sure he doesn't care what anyone thinks.

[Ray Bruns]

4. That was what I was going to post.

When did any of these hypocritical bastards ever give a damn about ethics or the law.

[happy feet]

13. This!

Just as Scalia before him re: duck hunting with Cheney before ruling on case before the Supreme Court that involved Cheney(I don't recall--perhaps wrt Haliburton).

[L. Coyote]

20. Not like he's been recusing himself on any sexual assault cases all these years.

Link to tweet

[BComplex]

5. I hope he never gets out of the hospital to look anyone else in the eye again.

He needs to transcend this earthly body, and move to a higher evolutionary vibration.

[maxsolomon]

7. He got out this morning.

He's be on the bench for another decade.

[BComplex]

8. I hadn't heard that.

Fuck!

[maxsolomon]

6. It's so adorable that Wayne Batchis thinks this is an issue for Thomas.

Does he look his colleagues in the eye currently?

[barbaraann]

9. He winks at his "friends."

Perhaps a "death stare" for the liberals?

[SheilaAnn]

10. Clarence should be asked what his old friend Justice Scalia would have thought of all this. n/t

[catrose]

18. Quack quack

[Hoosier_Progressiv]

11. I'm guessing with love?

At least with his fellow conservatives on the bench.

[Marcuse]

12. He hasn't been able to look himself in the mirror since he was Reagan's "reverse racism" EEOC Chair

I would never want to be in Thomas’s shoes, even if I didn’t have to listen to/be with Ginny. Justice Jackson will now take Justice Marshall’s seat which has been vacant since he left.

[GoldenMezzoDiva]

14. I simply cannot picture

that shifty ol' fool looking anyone in the eye. As for the Dizzy Ginni, needs to cut back on that clear, alcoholic beverage with the distinctive aroma of juniper berries.

[Gore1FL]

15. Same way as before, I suspect.

It's not like anything really changed.

[Rebl2]

16. He has

no shame. He is like the majority of idiot republicans.

[Hekate]

17. Well he's got Justice Beer Bong to commiserate with on how mean people are. nt

[L. Coyote]

19. RESIGN --- Ginni and Clarence Thomas Have Done Enough Damage

Opinion
Jesse Wegman, member of the editorial board.
Ginni and Clarence Thomas Have Done Enough Damage
March 25, 2022

What did Justice Clarence Thomas know, and when did he know it?

The question usually gets directed at politicians, not judges, but it’s a fair one in light of the revelation on Thursday that Justice Thomas’s wife, Ginni, was working feverishly behind the scenes — and to a far greater degree than she previously admitted — in a high-level effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

.....

If Justice Thomas were sitting on any other federal court in the country, he would likely have been required by the code of judicial ethics to recuse himself many times over. But the code does not apply to Supreme Court justices, creating a situation in which the highest court in the land is also the most unaccountable.

This is not tolerable. For years, Congress has tried in vain to extend the ethics code to the Supreme Court. For the sake of fundamental fairness and consistency, the code must apply to all federal judges; it would at the very least force the hand of those like Justice Thomas who seem unmoved by any higher sense of duty to the institution or to the American people who have agreed to abide by its rulings.

The court is in deep trouble these days, pervaded by what Justice Sonia Sotomayor recently called the “stench” of partisanship — a stench arising in no small part from the Thomases’ behavior. It is hard to imagine that the other justices, regardless of their personal politics, aren’t bothered.

No one should have to choose between their devotion to their spouse and their duty to the nation. But Justice Thomas has shown himself unwilling or unable to protect what remains of the court’s reputation from the appearance of extreme bias he and his wife have created. He would do the country a service by stepping down and making room for someone who won’t have that problem.

Link to tweet

[Skittles]

21. he is a fucking repuke hack

hypocrisy is SOP for the GOP