Supreme Court of Justice Clarence Thomas He repeatedly dismissed his critics during remarks Friday at a judicial conference in Alabama, lamenting what he described as the “evil” and “lies” directed at him and calling Washington a “horrible place.”
Asked whether his jurisprudence required a certain degree of courage, Thomas said he did not consider himself courageous – especially when compared to military personnel, firefighters and people who defuse bombs. Thomas said he was simply doing his job.
“Being in Washington, you especially have to get used to people who are reckless,” said Thomas, a conservative and the court’s most senior associate justice. “They don’t necessarily bomb you, but they bomb your reputation, your good name or your honor. And that’s not a crime, but they can do a lot of damage that way.”
Speaking at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals conference in Point Clear, Alabama, Thomas argued that it would be a disservice to soldiers and first responders “not to sit at my table and make decisions with a lifelong commitment that we know is right.” decisions.”
Thomas, although he does not speak directly to a series of reports on ethics that had tormented him for months, repeatedly returned to his critics without the prompting of U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, who moderated the discussion.
“My wife and I, for the last two or three years, it’s been — just the evil and the lies — it’s just incredible,” Thomas said.
Tomás and his wife, Ginni, have been the target of much criticism in recent years. Several of Thomas’ critics, including Democratic members of Congress, asked him to refuse of Supreme Court cases involving January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol because of his wife’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in former President Donald Trump’s favor.
Ginni Thomas has acknowledged having participated in the Trump rally before the attack on the Capitol. Judge Thomas has refused to refuse of this year’s cases involving the January 6 attack, including a blockbuster appeal concerning Trump’s claims of absolute immunity from criminal charges for his efforts to overturn the election results.
Thomas also faced criticism for accepting private jet trips and lavish vacations from Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow, first reported by ProPública. In response to the backlash, Thomas updated your financial disclosure formsand the Supreme Court adopted a code of conduct for the first time last year.
At one point on Friday, Thomas told a story about a hike he took with a friend before breaking into an aside.
“That was before they started attacking my friends,” Thomas said. “I hope I still have some.”
As he has done in the past, Thomas also spared little criticism of Washington, DC.
“I think what you will find, especially in Washington, [is] people take pride in being horrible,” Thomas said at one point.
The remark provoked laughter in the room, until Thomas continued.
“It’s a horrible place as far as I’m concerned,” Thomas said, noting that he enjoyed visiting other places where people “aren’t proud of doing harmful things just because they have the ability to do so.”
Thomas, 75, also appeared to regret a loss of confidence in the Supreme Courttelling the conference that the stunning leak of a draft opinion on abortion in 2022 It wouldn’t have happened when he joined the court in 1991. It wasn’t the first time Thomas had raised these points – he once likened the leak to “infidelity” – but his comments on Friday hinted at the consequences of leaking the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade could still be the priority.
“We may have been a dysfunctional family, but we were a family,” Thomas said of the court when he joined in 1991. “It would be inconceivable that anyone would leak an opinion from the court or do anything to intentionally harm each other. .”
Thomas also became the latest justice in recent weeks to raise concerns about the Supreme Court’s motions docket, the process the court uses to handle emergency requests. This process has been the target of harsh criticism in recent years, in part because the court often decides requests on short notice, often without oral argument and often with orders that do not indicate how the justices voted.
“I think there is some concern about this among my colleagues — certainly among me — because it short-circuits our process,” Thomas said. “I think the way we’re doing it now is not a complete way of dealing with very, very difficult issues.”
Turning to his critics, Thomas suggested that the lesson he took from the last year of controversy was that he would not react with “evil for the sake of it.”
“You have some choices. You can’t stop people from doing or saying horrible things,” Thomas said.
But, he said, he has come to accept “the fact that they can’t change you unless you let them.”
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
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