A congressional hearing on ethical standards for U.S. Supreme Court justices led to a partisan battle over Justice Clarence Thomas, Yahoo News reports. 

Thomas, once again, has recently been targeted by the left. This time it is over the actions of his wife, conservative advocate Virginia Thomas.

The Washington Post has published text messages that Virginia Thomas sent to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows following the 2020 presidential election. In those text messages, Virginia Thomas urged Meadows to contest the results of the election.

Accordingly, some on the left have called for Thomas to resign, while others have called for him to at least recuse himself from cases related to the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol protests. To the left’s dismay, Thomas has done neither, and he was the lone dissenter in a case in which former President Donald Trump asked the court to keep his records from the House committee investigating the events of Jan. 6.

“Troubling instances”

This week, the House held a hearing to discuss ethical standards for judges, especially for Supreme Court Justices. The hearing, though, rapidly devolved into a fight over the ethics of Thomas.

Republicans, including Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), accused the left of unfairly targeting Thomas. They argued that the only reason the hearing is being held is to target Thomas.

“Justice Thomas knows what all of my very conservative dear Black friends know, is nobody is treated more brutally in this country than a conservative Black,” Bohmert said. “And, it’s just like Justice Thomas said at his hearing, he was the victim of a high-tech lynching, and I would submit anyone that continues that abuse is further contributing to the same high-tech lynching.”

Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), however, disputed this notion.

“This notion that Clarence Thomas is being singled out because he’s a Black conservative — whatever that means — I think it’s belied by the fact that if you look at example after example, there seem to be troubling instances where he’s making rulings in cases where his wife has a clear interest,” Jeffries said.

What now?

It is unclear if any further ethics standards are going to be agreed to by the House considering how the hearing went.

This week, the House, though, did pass a piece of legislation that expands the financial disclosures that a federal judge – including Supreme Court justices, have to make.

The Courthouse Ethics and Transparency Act is headed to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.