Justice Thomas has been the target of countless Democrat attacks. But he never expected what happened next.
That’s why Clarence Thomas was floored when he heard this shocking news.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is easily the most conservative Justice on the Court.
His faithful adherence to Constitutional principles has won him many friends among the Republican Party.
But, unfortunately, it has also made him enemy number one for many Democrats in Congress.
Major liberals like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have called on the Justice Thomas to resign.
But Thomas was defended by the least likely of people.
Retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer described Justice Clarence Thomas as a “man of integrity” as his former colleague faces a barrage of Democratic criticism for his relationship with a wealthy Republican contributor.
After ProPublica revealed previously private flights and a 2014 property sale between Thomas and GOP fundraiser Harlan Crow, Thomas faced criticism from largely Democratic politicians and opponents. On Thursday, PBS NewsHour Supreme Court analyst Marcia Coyle addressed Breyer about Thomas and how a new code of ethics could apply to the justices at a federal circuit conference in Boston.
“As far as I’m concerned, I sat next to him on the bench for 28 years. I like him. He’s a friend of mine. I’ve never seen him do anything underhanded or say anything underhanded,” Breyer said, according to Bloomberg Law.
“My personal point of view is he’s a man of integrity,” Breyer told attendees at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit event.
Although justices examine the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, which was originally published in 1973, they are not bound by the standards through any accountability measures, such as sanctions for violations of the code.
Breyer noted that justices can make mistakes but pushed back on any notion that the Supreme Court doesn’t adhere to ethics standards. Should an issue come to light, Breyer said he sees it as “whatever applies to all the judges applies to me.”
The retired justice also reiterated what numerous legal experts have told the Washington Examiner: enforcing an ethics code for the nine justices is difficult because they cannot be replaced if they disqualify themselves from hearing a case, unlike lower court judges, who have a plethora of replacement options.
Breyer, who was nominated by former President Bill Clinton, was assigned to oversee cases from the 1st Circuit, a court on which he previously served. His replacement, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, now fills that position.
Breyer’s remarks came as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) said that he would invite Chief Justice John Roberts to testify about the Supreme Court’s ethics reform inquiry early next month. He emphasized that other justices may accept the offer in Roberts’ place, however no justices had answered as of Friday afternoon.
In a September 2022 interview, Breyer addressed the controversy surrounding Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, a prominent Republican activist who was chastised by Democrats for her support of former President Donald Trump’s election fraud claims in the 2020 election.
When asked if Ginni Thomas’ political activism was harming the court’s reputation, Breyer responded, “I don’t go through that in that I strongly believe that women who are wives, including wives of Supreme Court justices, have to make the decisions about how to lead their lives, careers, what kind of career, etc., for themselves.”
Some Democratic lawmakers’ calls for stricter ethics rules coincide with the Judicial Conference’s recent update requiring all federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, to disclose additional information about gifts such as hotel stays and other hospitable offerings.
Reports of Crow’s previous “hospitality” to Thomas surfaced just days after the new disclosure requirements were made public.
In response to the ProPublica investigation on his excursions with Crow, Thomas stated that he “was advised” that he did not have to disclose the trips.
The justice did not reply to the news regarding his property sale to Crow, but a source familiar with the situation told CNN that Thomas evidently did not believe he required to declare the sale because he did not profit from it.
Stay tuned to The Federalist Wire.
