The court is expected to weigh in next session on same-sex marriage, which it legalized in 2015
Settled legal precedent in the US is not “gospel” and in some instances may have been “something somebody dreamt up and others went along with”, the US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas has said.
Thomas – part of the conservative supermajority that has taken hold of the supreme court over Donald Trump’s two presidencies – delivered those comments Thursday at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law in Washington DC, ABC News and other outlets reported. His remarks preceded the nine-month term that the supreme court is scheduled to begin on 6 October.
“I don’t think that … any of these cases that have been decided are the gospel,” Thomas said during the rare public appearance, invoking a term which in a religious context is often used to refer to the word of God. “And I do give perspective to the precedent. But … the precedent should be respectful of our legal tradition, and our country and our laws, and be based on something – not just something somebody dreamt up and others went along with.”
In other words, Uncle Thomas is done pretending he cares about the law
Yeah… Wonder if he’s already got a carve out written up specifically for him when they overturn the civil rights act or interracial marriage?
We gotta change this lifetime appointment bullshit. Fuck this uncle tom loser asshole.
Just a reminder that this fucker sexually harassed Anita Hill for years.
And subjected other colleagues and associates to his porn addiction at the very least.
Clarence Thomas is the kind of man who after spending 12 years a slave would go out and hunt runaway slaves for his own new land.
“precedent” was destroyed in 2022. The Supreme Court are just tools of the christian cult. They have destroyed American law.
American law is as stable as a house of cards when half the country would rather base the law on presumptions of what 18th century white supremacists might have preferred to the needs of Americans in the 21st century…
Precedent was destroyed long before then…
Yuppp
It won’t be precedent. It will be amount of RVs donated.
MOTOR COACH!
God, that story seems like a lifetime ago.
So wouldn’t this mean that past SCOTUS decisions are irrelevant to new cases? So people could legitimately keep bringing near-identical cases to the SCOTUS level and have a legitimate expectation for them to be decided? That sounds obviously unwise even by current SCOTUS standards.
Mind you, Thomas probably wants to go by a rule of “precedent matters when I say it does”, so consistency is irrelevant.
I think to a degree it’s never mattered. If the composition of the Supreme Court has changed enough, then they just come up with their own ad-hoc justification to make new rulings over old cases. Before her death, I remember RBG was encouraging the public to bring new cases regarding older rulings.
Precedent is important, but it’s superseded by whether or not the plaintiff has taken Thomas on vacation recently.
Don’t forget:
A big reason Thomas is a SC judge is Biden ran a sham confirmation hearing for his “good buddies across the aisle”…
https://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/biden-anita-hill-women-senate-clarence-thomas-213864
When Biden bitched and moaned about how it wasnt like “the good ole days” is because back then he was at best a useful idiot, if not outright intentionally helping the far right religious extremists who now run the GOP.
Decades of neoliberalism is coming home to roost with trump. A real party never would have let them set all this shit up over the decades.
When one must make the choice between established precedent or a luxury motorhome, obviously precedent isn’t gospel for Clarence Thomas
"He regularly slips into his speeches his love of driving it through the American heartland — ‘the part we fly over.’
Imagine Clarence rolling up into Gary, Indiana in this thing to see “The Real America”:
Look at you assuming this rapist of Anita Hill had morals and ethics in the first place.
Fun fact, Clarence Thomas’ reaction to Samuel L Jackson in Django Unchained was, “Sam’s getting soft in his old age.”
A lot of words for “I don’t like it”
“I’m getting paid to not like it”
I think the gratuity is just a bonus. I think these really are his deeply held personal beliefs.
I have completely lost all confidence in our government.
Why start respecting 200 years of norms in American law now?
Ok, then when trump leaves and a democrat packs the court, then who gives a fuck? It’s not like the number of judges is gospel or anything. Or an age limit, again if we’re not going to follow the rules then who fucking cares
As much as I want it, I don’t think the Democrats will ever be willing to pack the court. -and that makes me a little depressed.
The last time they had the chance, polling told them Americans wouldn’t be happy so they left it alone.
It’s neat how they pay attention to what Americans want when it’s the politically easy thing to do.
