There are countless members of the political left and biased liberal media who would like nothing better than to see conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas exit the high bench, whether through resignation or impeachment and removal.
The senior jurist humorously alluded to that desire of the left during a conference Friday in which he joked that he “absolutely” would step down if he did his job as “poorly” as the mainstream media, The Conservative Brief reported.
That joke was almost certainly in reference to the over-the-top manner in which the left-leaning media has covered the unprecedented leak of a draft opinion in a pending abortion case that would overturn 1973’s Roe v. Wade and return control of abortion regulations to the separate states.
Compliment turned insult to media
“One of the things I say in response to the media,” Justice Thomas said, “especially early on, about the way I did my job, I said, ‘I will absolutely leave the court when I do my job as poorly as you do yours.'”
“And that was meant as a compliment, really,” he added with a hearty laugh. “It really is getting to be mean.”
According to NBC News, Justice Thomas spoke Friday evening at a conference for black conservatives held in Dallas, Texas, and specifically addressed the fallout of the leaked draft opinion on the abortion case — particularly as it related to the trustworthiness of the Supreme Court as an American institution.
The trust is gone
“When you lose that trust, especially in the institution that I’m in, it changes the institution fundamentally. You begin to look over your shoulder,” he explained. “It’s like kind of an infidelity that you can explain it, but you can’t undo it.”
He went on to say that it previously would have been beyond “anyone’s imagination” for even “one line of one opinion” to be leaked to the media prior to the public release of a final ruling. “‘Oh, that’s impossible. No one would ever do that,'” Thomas said. “Now that trust or that belief is gone forever.”
“I do think that what happened at the court is tremendously bad,” he said at another point in the conversation. “I wonder how long we’re going to have these institutions at the rate we’re undermining them.”
Conservatives don’t throw “temper tantrums” like liberals
According to Newsweek, Justice Thomas also took a verbal shot at the outraged pro-abortion activists throwing “temper tantrum” protests outside the private homes of Republican-appointed justices and noted that such un-American intimidation tactics are rarely ever used by conservative activists.
“You would never visit Supreme Court justices’ houses when things didn’t go our way,” he said. “We didn’t throw temper tantrums. It is incumbent on us to always act appropriately, and not to repay tit for tat.”
Thomas also decried the manner in which the left has savaged Republican-appointed nominees to the high court, himself included, and said of conservatives, “You will not see the utter destruction of a single nominee.” He added, “You will also not see people going to other people’s houses, attacking them at dinner at a restaurant, throwing things on them.”
