Commentary: Democrats’ Calls for Justice Thomas’ Recusal Are a Nakedly Political Ploy

Justice Clarence Thomas

In their latest attack on the integrity of the U.S. Supreme Court, House Democrats are urging Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from a case involving former President Donald Trump’s eligibility to appear on Colorado’s Republican primary ballot.

Their reasoning is simple, but dangerously misguided: Because Thomas’ wife, Ginni, has expressed opinions about Trump and the 2020 election, he should be barred from adjudicating any case involving Trump and elections.

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Yale Law Library Shuts Down Attempt to Investigate Status of Its Clarence Thomas Portrait

Yale law library staff denied a reporter access to view the portraits hanging in its building in May and would not confirm whether a Clarence Thomas portrait donated to the library is among them, and this week deferred on numerous media requests asking about the whereabouts of the painting.

College Fix associate editor Maggie Kelly identified herself as a reporter and asked the interior gate attendant several times at the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale whether she could access the building to view its portraits. The attendant told her that only Yale law students and their guests are permitted to access the library. He also declined escorting the reporter around the building for a tour.

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Minnesota A.G. Ellison Calls for Impeaching Justice Clarence Thomas, Compares Him to House Slave

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called for impeaching U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and compared him to a house slave during a recent media interview.

Ellison recently returned to his hometown of Detroit to promote his new book, “Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence.” While there, he sat down for an extended interview with the Michigan Chronicle and discussed recent Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action and student loan debt.

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Commentary: The Democrat-Funded ProPublica ‘Investigations’ into Conservative SCOTUS Justices Is Retribution for Overturning Roe

ProPublica launched a partisan “investigation,” this time targeting another conservative U.S. Supreme Court member.

As if on cue, mainstream media outlets jumped on the bandwagon, relishing in the prospect of free content for their publications — content that undermines conservative jurists, and conservative lawmakers by association. This is purely political payback for the Dobbs decision of 2022.

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Far-Left Senator Criticizes Conservative Justices’ Wives’ Activism But Pushes Legislation Relating to His Own Wife’s Work

Democratic Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has raised concern about the employment of Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife, though has introduced around two dozen bills touching on issues his wife works on as a consultant for Ocean Conservancy.

Whitehouse has criticized Justice Clarence Thomas for his wife’s consulting work for conservatives and communication with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, sending a letter last year requesting Chief Justice Roberts ensure Thomas recuse himself from cases relating to Jan. 6. Yet his wife Sandra Whitehouse has worked since 2008 as a consultant and senior policy advisor for Ocean Conservancy, while Whitehouse has introduced at least 24 ocean-related bills and co-founded the Senate Oceans Caucus in 2011.

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Harlan Crow Refutes Accusations, Speaks Out on Clarence Thomas Attacks: ‘Political Hit Job’

Harlan Crow said media reports on his friendship with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are “factually incorrect” and part of a “political hit job” in an interview Monday with The Dallas Morning News.

Crow said it’s possible for people to simply be friends without having an “angle” and slammed the media for attempting to spin his friendship with Thomas into something it’s not. “I think that the media, and this ProPublica group in particular, funded by leftists, has an agenda to destabilize the [Supreme] Court,” Crow told The Dallas Morning News.

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Georgia Court Appointees Andrew Pinson and Ben Land Promoted, Sworn onto State Bench

Georgia Judiciary Appointees Andrew Pinson and Benjamin Land were sworn onto the state bench in promotional appointments made by Governor Brian Kemp (R) on Wednesday.

“Today, I had the honor of swearing in Andrew Pinson to the #SupremeCourtGA and Ben Land to the @AppealsCourtGA, its first judge from Columbus. They both have upheld wisdom and integrity on the bench, and they will continue to do so in the important cases that come before them,” Governor Kemp said. 

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Former Clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas to Be Sworn in as the New Georgia Supreme Court Justice Next Week

Georgia is set to swear in its news Supreme Court Justice next week. 

“The Honorable Andrew A. Pinson will be sworn in as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia on Wednesday, July 20, at 1 p.m.,” said a release from the state Supreme Court’s website. “Gov. Brian Kemp will administer the oath of office in the House Chamber of the State Capitol Building.”

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Individuals Call for Assassination of Justice Clarence Thomas after Roe v. Wade Ruling

Individuals have been calling on social media for the assassination of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas after he issued a separate concurring opinion on Friday in a ruling that struck down Roe v. Wade. Abortion activists have also published his home address, and others have called to burn down the Supreme Court.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned two landmark abortion cases, Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, returning the legality of abortion to the states. Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority and Justice Thomas wrote a solo concurring opinion in which he argued that the Supreme Court should also reconsider rulings on contraception, same-sex relationships and marriage.

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Justice Thomas: ‘We Are in Danger of Destroying the Institutions Required for a Free Society’

It’s been two weeks and there’s still no word on who leaked the U.S. Supreme Court draft brief indicating that the court was set to overturn Roe V. Wade and returning the issue of abortion back to the states.

At a recent event in Dallas, Texas, hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, the Hoover Institution, and the Manhattan Institute, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas spoke about the leak and his concern for the rule of law and credibility of the court.

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Commentary: The Difference Between Judge Jackson and Justice Thomas Is the Difference Between Nihilism and Natural Law

Observers of the Supreme Court should ask themselves what’s the more preposterous mainstream media mindmeld: whether Justice Clarence Thomas should recuse himself or resign over his wife’s political activism, or the legal brilliance of the Supreme Court Justice-to-be, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Truth be told, what we have here is the myrmidon media’s mockery of the most brilliant Supreme Court justice ever, one they have derisively dismissed as a lawn jockey of the Right, a lackey of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, someone who will be tutored on race by future Justice Jackson, and now a pawn or puppet of his wife. The actual contrast between the two judges could hardly be greater. Of course, neither justice should be held completely responsible for the allies he attracts.

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Justice Clarence Thomas Hospitalized with Flu-Like Symptoms, Supreme Court Says

Justice Clarence Thomas

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been in a Washington, D.C., hospital since Friday with flu-like symptoms, according to an announcement from the court.

“He underwent tests, was diagnosed with an infection, and is being treated with intravenous antibiotics. His symptoms are abating, he is resting comfortably, and he expects to be released from the hospital in a day or two,” the press release stated.

“Justice Thomas will participate in the consideration and discussion of any cases for which he is not present on the basis of the briefs, transcripts, and audio of the oral arguments,” according to the court.

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Clarence Thomas: The Supreme Court Could Be the ‘Most Dangerous’ Branch of Government

Justice Clarence Thomas warned against politicizing the Supreme Court Thursday, saying that doing so could make the judicial system the “most dangerous” branch of government.

During a speech at the University of Notre Dame, Thomas cautioned against allowing “others to manipulate our institutions when we don’t get the outcome we like.” He reminded the crowd that justices do rule not based on “personal preferences,” according to The Washington Post.

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Ohio Attorney General Sues to Make Google a Public Utility

A lawsuit filed on Tuesday by Ohio Attorney General David Yost aims to make Google a public utility, limiting the ways the search engine provides search results.

“Google uses its dominance of internet search to steer Ohioans to Google’s own products–that’s discriminatory and anti-competitive,” Yost said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “When you own the railroad or the electric company or the cellphone tower, you have to treat everyone the same and give everybody access.”

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Commentary: Justice Thomas on the Dynamite That Is Natural Right

by Ken Masugi   If it’s true that “natural right is dynamite,” as political philosopher Leo Strauss wrote, then Justice Clarence Thomas just went nuclear on the abortion debate. While Thomas’s concurring opinion in Box v. Planned Parenthood has received considerable commentary, his deepening of the judicial and, hence, the political debate over abortion demands further elaboration. His reply to the leading threat to the principles of the Declaration of Independence is his latest attempt in a career of restoring its authority. Thomas had argued, “this [Indiana] law and other laws like it promote a State’s compelling interest in preventing abortion from becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics.” The Indiana law had barred abortion for the purposes of sex and race selection, and for fetal disabilities. Thomas critics contend he wrongly introduced elements of the now-(justly) maligned eugenics movement into the abortion debate. But recall that Justice Blackmun in Roe v. Wade observed (as Professor David Bernstein reminded me), “population growth, pollution, poverty, and racial overtones tend to complicate and not to simplify the problem.” I would argue instead that Blackmun was trying to obfuscate the issue, whose terrible clarity Thomas was trying to highlight: “From the beginning, birth control and abortion were promoted as means of effectuating…

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Clarence Thomas Clerks Dominate Trump’s Judicial Appointments

by Kevin Daley   One credential in particular has been a boon to candidates President Donald Trump considers for judicial appointments: a clerkship with Justice Clarence Thomas. As of this writing, the president has appointed seven Thomas clerks to the federal appeals courts, while an eighth is expected in the near future. As such, Thomas’s legal approach — sometimes branded unusual or idiosyncratic — can claim adherents among a new generation of judges. “At this point, Justice Thomas is clearly the leading intellectual force on the conservative side of the bench,” said Carrie Severino, a former Thomas clerk who leads the Judicial Crisis Network, an advocacy group that supports Trump’s efforts to recast the judicial branch. “His principled approach to the law is very much in the ascendency and those are the kind of judges that this president has pledged for the courts,” Severino added. Thomas generally hires law clerks who share his originalist judicial philosophy. Among the Supreme Court’s conservatives, he is somewhat unique in that respect: former Justice Antonin Scalia periodically hired liberal “counter clerks” to sharpen his work, while the hiring practices of other conservatives like Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh appears slightly more varied. “I’m…

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A Little-Noticed Opinion Portends Big Changes for Religious Liberty at the Supreme Court

by Kevin Daley   The Supreme Court’s conservative bloc released a short, little-noticed statement on Jan. 22 that portends far-reaching changes for religious liberty. The statement — which Justice Samuel Alito authored and Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh joined — criticized the 1990 Employment Division v. Smith decision, a landmark ruling that held laws interfering with religious exercise are constitutional provided that they apply to everyone and are neutrally enforced. “In Employment Division v. Smith the Court drastically cut back on the protection provided by the free exercise clause,” Alito wrote. “In this case, however, we have not been asked to revisit that decision.” In the understated parlance of the Supreme Court, it was a clarion call for litigants to bring cases challenging Smith. It was all the more remarkable in that four justices signed onto the statement, an uncommon occurrence for opinions of this nature. The late Justice Antonin Scalia authored the 5-4 Smith ruling. Outrage at the decision prompted passage of the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which requires courts to subject federal action that infringes on religious practice to the highest degree of scrutiny. More recently, something approaching an anti-Smith consensus has developed on the right. Most…

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Dr. Carol Swain Commentary: The War Against Conservative Supreme Court Justices

by Dr. Carol M. Swain   Supreme Court justices need secret service protection now more than ever. The Left would like to remove Justices Kavanaugh and Thomas.  Their goal is to gain control of the Court using any means necessary. On October 6, the day of the Senate vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, Charlie Savage, writing for The New York Times, discussed liberal strategies for gaining control of the Court. Acknowledging that the Supreme Court would be controlled by a conservative majority for the foreseeable future, Savage reported, “Liberals have already started to attack the legitimacy of the majority bloc and discussed ways to eventually undo its power without waiting for one of its members to retire or die.” One idea is to regain control of the of the government in 2020 and have a liberal president increase the number of Supreme Court justices to create a liberal majority.  Another scheme is to find a means to “impeach, remove and replace Justice Kavanaugh,” as well as Justice Thomas.    Currently, there is a petition with over 47,000 signatures to impeach Thomas.  In the past, opportunities to fill Supreme Court seats depended on the death…

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Steve Osborne Commentary: #ConfirmKavanaugh Now

by Steve Osborne   The Kavanaugh hearings have devolved into a disgraceful spectacle. As his accuser’s accusation falls apart, another accuser mysteriously appeared over the weekend saying the judge acted inappropriately during his freshman year in college. If you haven’t figured it out by now, let me tell you that this whole charade is an orchestrated attempt by the democrats, hoping to delay a vote on Kavanaugh’s appointment to SCOTUS. The Democrats see that there’s a possibility of retaking the majority in the senate. If they can delay the vote on Kavanaugh until after the midterm elections, the judge won’t get the necessary votes to be confirmed. All the while, the judge’s family has to endure unfounded mudslinging all for the sake of unseemly politics. Sadly, we’ve seen this movie before. The Honorable Robert Bork, nominated for SCOTUS by President Reagan, was publicly and unjustly ripped to shreds during his confirmation hearing, and failed to get the necessary votes to confirm his nomination. Justice Clarence Thomas was similarly defamed during his confirmation hearing by a democrat operative named Anita Hill. Thankfully, Justice Thomas, knowing Anita was a setup, read a statement prior to his vote in which he excoriated the…

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Justice Thomas Calls Out the Supreme Court for Not Believing in the Second Amendment

Justice Clarence Thomas

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had stern words for his colleagues when the court declined to hear a case challenging California’s handgun laws, saying that the jurists do not understand the importance of self-defense. The case, supported by the National Rifle Association, involves San Diego resident Edward Peruta, who challenged his county’s refusal to grant him…

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