The Death of Ethics: The Right Wants Justice Thomas to Refuse to Recuse
They're fighting as absurd claim that Clarence Thomas could be influenced by wife Ginni's seditious activism.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and wife Ginni
When Bob Woodward and Robert Costa broke the story about the 29 emails exchanged between Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and Trump's Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, it seemed indisputable that the justice should recuse himself from any case related to the January 6th coup plot that could come before the Court.
Ms. Thomas had fervidly implored Meadows to do everything in his power to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 election victory and hand Donald Trump a second term as president. "Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History”, she wrote. Accordingly, two days after the election, she relayed Qanon-flavored intelligence to Meadows that
“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.”
“Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!...You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”
PUSHBACK
Americans agree, 53% to 28% in one poll, that Thomas should recuse, so it was striking that conservatives immediately discarded principle and waged war against recusal. A barrage of editorials, columns, and cable outrage poured forth to the disbelief of the left, arguing that there was no conflict, that it was outlandish to think that Justice Thomas could have been corrupted by his wife's extremism.
When some of the more heated members of the left such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez demanded that Thomas resign outright, the right took that as proof that the left's real agenda is to delegitimize the Court in advance of its decisions on abortion, gun control, and affirmative action on the near horizon. John Malcom of the Federalist Foundation said, "This is really part of an ongoing effort to try to intimidate conservative judges and an ongoing and longtime effort to denigrate Justice Thomas and to delegitimize the court." Lacking in conservative media hammering on this theme was any concern that the conflict of a wife manic to upend the Constitution and her husband a Supreme Court justice who refuses to step aside is itself what contributes to a growing public view of an illegitimate Supreme Court.
"We are long past the day when a wife's opinions are assumed to be the same as her husband's", wrote columnist Jason Riley at The Wall Street Journal, as if that somehow ruled out cross-pollination. Ginni's saying in an interview with The Free Beacon that, “Clarence doesn’t discuss his work with me, and I don’t involve him in my work” was quoted by all as dispositive. How indecorous it would be to disbelieve her.
However, one of her emails to Meadows said, “Thank you!! Needed that! This plus a conversation with my best friend just now…". Ms Thomas has often referred to Mr. Thomas as her best friend.
A source close to the Thomases said, “by modern standards we accept the fact that two professionals who are spouses can have distinctive and separate professional lives.” The unnamed source said the couple isn’t preoccupied with the day-to-day of each other’s careers, and stressed that Justice Thomas isn’t interested in politics and “doesn’t like the back and forth.” Is this person a live-in that knows everything said between the two? This is what is presented as conclusive.
Confronted in an interview with the federal law that says recusal is required when one's spouse is implicated, Malcom answered,
"I completely disagree with that. I mean, Ginni Thomas is not a lawyer. She is not a litigant. She doesn't work for any organization that is a party to any lawsuit… She has no personal interest at all that could be affected by the outcome of any litigation related to the election or January 6."
Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School and an anti-impeachment witness in the congressional proceedings, called Ginni Thomas's petitioning to Meadows "constitutionally protected advocacy".
The Journal plays down the story. There's a war going on, after all. "Sounds nefarious, until you understand that the back and forth added up to nothing meaningful". The editorial board raises the question of why these messages have leaked in the first place. That's novel: a newspaper that thinks we shouldn't know about such things. "The right answer is that Ginni Thomas is no threat to the Court, no matter how bizarre her view about the 2020 election." Ginni Thomas haranguing Chief of Staff Meadows with, “You guys fold, the evil just moves fast down underneath you all. Lots of intensifying threats coming to ACB [Justice Barrett] and others” is thus reduced by the Journal to a "view". "There is no reason to believe her personal political views influence the judicial impartiality of Justice Thomas".
But there is reason. If Justice Thomas's record showed that his decisions had no confluence with his wife's radical activism, that might have settled the matter, but it doesn't. Here’s why… Click to continue reading
We link to the Let’s Fix This Country website so as not to make email overlong