Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas repeatedly pushed back against his criticism during his remarks Friday at a judicial conference in Alabama, deploring what he described as the “meanness” and “lies” directed at him and calling Washington a “hideous place.”
When asked if his jurisprudence required a certain courage, Thomas said he didn’t consider himself courageous — especially when compared to the military, firefighters and people who defuse bombs. Thomas said he was just doing his job.
“Being in Washington, you have to get particularly used to people being reckless,” said Thomas, a conservative and the Court’s longest-serving associate justice. “They don’t necessarily bombard you, but they bombard your reputation, your reputation or your honor. And it’s not a crime, but they can do just as much harm that way.
Speaking at the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals Conference in Point Clear, Alabama, Thomas argued that it would be a disservice to these soldiers and first responders “not to sit in my office and to make decisions with a lifetime mandate that we know are the right ones.” the decisions.”
Thomas, while not directly addressing a series of ethics reports that have tormented him for months, repeatedly returned to his criticisms without intervention from U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, who moderated the discussion.
“My wife and I, the last two or three years, it was — just the nastiness and the lies — it was just unbelievable,” Thomas said.
Thomas and his wife, Ginnie, have been the target of much criticism in recent years. Several critics of Thomas, including Democratic members of Congress, have called for him to recuse himself from Supreme Court cases involving the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol due to his wife’s efforts to overturn the election 2020 presidential election of former President Donald. Trump’s favor.
Ginni Thomas admitted to attending Trump rally before Capitol attack. Justice Thomas refused to recuse himself this year from cases involving the Jan. 6 attack, including a blockbuster appeal over Trump’s claims of absolute immunity from criminal charges for his efforts to overturn the election results .
Thomas was also criticized for accepting private jet trips and swanky vacations from Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, first reported by ProPublica. In response to the blowback, Thomas updated its financial disclosure forms and the Supreme Court adopted a code of conduct for the first time last year.
At one point Friday, Thomas told a story about a walk he took with a friend before breaking off for an aside.
“That was before they started attacking my friends,” Thomas said. “I hope I still have some left.”
As he has in the past, Thomas also spared little criticism of Washington, DC.
“I think what you’re going to find, and particularly in Washington, is that people pride themselves on being horrible,” Thomas said at one point.
The remark sparked laughter in the room, until Thomas continued.
“It’s a hideous place, as far as I’m concerned,” Thomas said, noting that he likes to visit other places where people “don’t pride themselves on doing harmful things just because they have to.” ability”.
Thomas, 75, also appeared to lament a loss of confidence within the Supreme Court, telling the conference that the stunning leak of a draft opinion on abortion in 2022 would not have happened when he joined the Court in 1991. This was not the first time. Thomas has made these remarks once – he once likened the leak to “infidelity” – but his remarks on Friday suggested that the fallout from leaking the decision overturning Roe v. Wade could still be a priority.
“We may have been a dysfunctional family, but we were a family,” Thomas said of the court when he first joined it in 1991. “It would be inconceivable that anyone would disclose a court opinion or does anything to intentionally harm each other. .”
Thomas also became the latest justice in recent weeks to express concerns about the Supreme Court’s docket, the process the court uses to handle emergency requests. That role has come under intense criticism in recent years, in part because the court often rules on requests at short notice, usually without oral arguments and often with orders that do not indicate how the justices voted.
“I think it raises some concerns among my colleagues — certainly among me — because it short-circuits our process,” Thomas said. “The way we’re doing it now, I think, is not a thorough way of dealing with very, very difficult questions.”
Looking back on his criticism, Thomas suggested that the lesson he had learned from the past year of controversy was that he would not respond with “mean for mean.”
“You have choices. You can’t stop people from doing or saying horrible things,” Thomas said.
But, he says, he has come to accept “the fact that they can’t change you unless you allow them to.”
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
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