November 16, 2022
By Steven Lubet
The six conservative justice (click here) on the U.S. Supreme Court have seemingly come to think of themselves as historians, able to excavate the original meaning of the Constitution from archival sources revealed to them in the briefs of petitioners and respondents. The result has been bad history and worse law, culminating in last term’s New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, where the majority invalidated New York’s restrictions on carrying concealed handguns because it was deemed inconsistent with “this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
According to Justice Clarence Thomas’s opinion, a gun control statute can be upheld only if there is an “American tradition justifying” its specific provisions, meaning similar laws in force around 1791 (when the Second Amendment was adopted) or 1868 (when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, which made the Bill of Rights applicable to the states)....
The six conservative justice (click here) on the U.S. Supreme Court have seemingly come to think of themselves as historians, able to excavate the original meaning of the Constitution from archival sources revealed to them in the briefs of petitioners and respondents. The result has been bad history and worse law, culminating in last term’s New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, where the majority invalidated New York’s restrictions on carrying concealed handguns because it was deemed inconsistent with “this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
According to Justice Clarence Thomas’s opinion, a gun control statute can be upheld only if there is an “American tradition justifying” its specific provisions, meaning similar laws in force around 1791 (when the Second Amendment was adopted) or 1868 (when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, which made the Bill of Rights applicable to the states)....
That is a very confused set of values. There is a reason why he voted with the late Justice Scalia, because he had no clue.
October 24, 2022
Congress should investigate Ginni Thomas for her involvement in the January 6th attack (click here) on the Capitol and attempts to overthrow the 2020 election and Justice Clarence Thomas for his failure to recuse from related cases, according to a request sent by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington today to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.
Ginni Thomas, who holds a government position as a board member of the Library of Congress Trust Fund, messaged the Trump White House encouraging then-president Donald Trump to refuse to concede and join an attempt by Sidney Powell to have the Supreme Court overturn the election result. She also contacted multiple state officials in an attempt to have them set aside and alter the result of the election in their states. She told Trump’s chief of staff that an army was gathering to keep Trump in office and took part in the January 6th rallies that led to the attack on the Capitol.
“It is critical that those responsible for the attack on the Capitol be held accountable and that the integrity of the Supreme Court not be tainted by conflicts of interest,” CREW President Noah Bookbinder said. “The Judiciary Committees have responsibility for the oversight of our judiciary and law enforcement agencies, and investigating Ginni Thomas’s conduct and Justice Thomas’s failure to recuse is an essential exercise of that oversight responsibility.”
Justice Thomas has recused himself from 54 cases since joining the Supreme Court in order to avoid the perception of potential conflicts of interest, including 17 cases involving his son. He has never recused because of a potential conflict involving his wife, and was the sole vote to keep the White House’s communications around the attempt to reject the election results secret despite his wife’s communications with the White House on related issues.
“It is hard to imagine something more damaging to the public trust in the Supreme Court than a Justice ruling on cases that could relate to their spouses’ attempts to overturn American democracy,” Bookbinder said. “An immediate investigation is needed.”...
Ginny Thomas has practiced pure hate filled venom in her insider role with the Trump White House including that of Mark Meadows. Normally, this is nothing more than bad sportsmanship, but, not when it is linked to a deadly insurrection. She definitely seems to know of the movement that was to take place on January 6th. There are people dead from that insurrection. Her emails are not simply in bad taste, they direct the President's Chief of Staff. These are people that are allies and not friends. She isn't angry at a dinner party, she is angry to the Chief of Staff in the White House.
March 26, 2022
By Danny Hakim, Jo Becker and Alan Feuer
Two days after the 2020 election, (click here) Virginia Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, texted an old friend, Mark Meadows, the chief of staff to President Donald J. Trump.
She sent messages that had been making the rounds on pro-Trump sites, where anger over the election echoed her own raw feelings, including this passage: “Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition.”
Then she added of this fanciful, if chilling, set of conspiracy theories: “I hope this is true.”
She texted Mr. Meadows again the next day. “Do not concede,” she wrote. “It takes time for the army who is gathering for his back.”
The messages were among a flurry of text traffic between Ms. Thomas and Mr. Meadows that was revealed this past week, part of a trove of documents previously turned over to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. (Ms. Thomas has openly opposed the committee and called for Republicans who serve on it to be expelled from the House Republican conference.)...
By Danny Hakim, Jo Becker and Alan Feuer
Two days after the 2020 election, (click here) Virginia Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, texted an old friend, Mark Meadows, the chief of staff to President Donald J. Trump.
She sent messages that had been making the rounds on pro-Trump sites, where anger over the election echoed her own raw feelings, including this passage: “Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition.”
Then she added of this fanciful, if chilling, set of conspiracy theories: “I hope this is true.”
She texted Mr. Meadows again the next day. “Do not concede,” she wrote. “It takes time for the army who is gathering for his back.”
The messages were among a flurry of text traffic between Ms. Thomas and Mr. Meadows that was revealed this past week, part of a trove of documents previously turned over to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. (Ms. Thomas has openly opposed the committee and called for Republicans who serve on it to be expelled from the House Republican conference.)...
