Angst can frequently be channeled constructively. History is full of people who transmute their oppressive circumstances into something positive and uplifting. Louie Armstrong grew up in bleak poverty but he sang, “It’s A Wonderful World” and you knew he believed it. Maya Angelou penned, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” because indeed she did. And then we have Clarence Thomas, who brought grievance to the table early on and never grew out of it, evidently. At least, that is what former classmate Hillary Clinton has to report. The Hill:
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is slamming conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, whom she described as a “person of grievance” in an interview on Tuesday.
“I went to law school with him. He’s been a person of grievance for as long as I have known him,” Clinton said in an interview with Gayle King during an appearance on “CBS This Morning.” “Resentment, grievance, anger … women are going to die, Gayle. Women will die.” […]
He has signaled in the past to lower courts, to state legislatures to find cases, pass laws, get them up,” Clinton said, adding Thomas’s message to conservative judicial activists has been “I may not get them the first, the second, or the third time, but we’re going to keep at it.”
And Thomas isn’t stopping with Roe. No, that would be good news and we don’t have that.
In a separate concurring opinion Friday, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas questioned a number of the high court’s past rulings, including Obergefell v. Hodges, which established the right of same-sex couples to marry, and Lawrence vs. Texas—a 2003 decision in which the court ruled against the state of Texas regarding a 1973 law criminalizing the act of sodomy.
Thomas also mentioned Griswold v. Connecticut, which established the right of married couples to use contraception without government interference. “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell. Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,'” Thomas wrote. “We have a duty to ‘correct the error’ regarding these established in those precedents.”
Whoopi Goldberg made the crack, “Maybe they’ll be coming after you next,” meaning abrogating Loving v. Virginia, which is the 1967 case which legalized inter-racial marriage. You remember the poem, “First they came…” Here that is.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Thomas is establishing some very dangerous precedent. Not to mention the fact that he didn’t recuse himself from hearing cases pertaining to the January 6 riot, even though his wife has an involvement in the matter.
I really hope they can nail Ginni Thomas. It would be leverage to get Clarence to retire (as he should).
Well, if I were a lawyer arguing ANY case in the future related to a topic that Thomas went out of his way to “suggest” overturning, I would demand that Thomas recuse himself from hearing the case or risk the Court’s very reputation to be a TRULY impartial body that hears arguments based SOLELY on the law. Thomas’s words in the Dodds case proves he cannot be impartial.
And, really, Thomas’s own words should be ample evidence to impeach him. And an impeachment hearing should be made clear that, as a private citizen, he’s more than free to say whatever he wants but when he expounds IN A LEGAL CASE that he would be open to overturning other cases WITHOUT ACTUAL MERIT, he’s turned the Court into a political venue, something that CONSERVATIVES have complained about for the last several decades. If conservatives can’t find Thomas’s words to be troubling, at the very least, then they’ve proved they do NOT respect the law–they respect only power.
The black man who replaced Justice Marshall has one major grievance that has caused all his unhappiness, all of his life-he was not born a white man. This person is Uncle Ruckus in the flesh. Because he is so unhappy, he has developed MANY grievances. I’d say we should pity the fool but he has been such a hateful, ignorant, fool who is going to kill so many women, children, etc. with his ignorance that I cannot even ask folks to pity his moronic ass.