WASHINGTON ( Associated Press) – Justice Clarence Thomas says the Supreme Court has been changed by the shocking leak of a draft opinion earlier this month. The opinion shows that the court almost 50 years ago in Roe v. Wade is ready to eliminate the right to abortion.
Conservative Thomas, who joined the court in 1991 and has long been in Roe v. Called to reverse Wadedescribed the leak as an unimaginable breach of trust.
“When you lose that trust, especially in the institution I’m in, it fundamentally changes the institution. You start looking over your shoulder. It’s a kind of infidelity called You can explain, but you can’t undo it,” he said while speaking at a conference Friday evening in Dallas.
The court has said that the draft does not represent the final position of any member of the court, and Chief Justice John Roberts has ordered an investigation into the leaks.,
President George HW Bush’s candidate Thomas said it was “beyond anyone’s imagination” before leaking the opinion to Politico on May 2. that even a line of a draft opinion would be issued in advance, let alone the entire draft of about 100 pages, Politico has also reported that in addition to Thomas, Conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Connie Barrett, along with draft opinion writer Samuel Alito, called for Roe v. Wade and a 1992 decision, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Reaffirmed the cry for the constitutional right to abortion.
Thomas said that previously, “if someone said a line of opinion” would leak, the response would be: “Oh, that’s impossible. No one would ever do that.”
“Now that belief or that belief is gone forever,” Thomas said at the Old Parkland Convention, which describes itself as a convention “with proven alternative approaches to dealing with the challenges facing black Americans today.” to discuss.”
Thomas also said at one point: “I think what happened in court is very bad … I wonder how long we will keep these institutions at the rate that we are undermining them.”
Thomas also touched on protests by liberals in the homes of conservative justices in Maryland and Virginia. Which happened after the release of the draft opinion. Thomas argued that conservatives never acted this way.
“You never went to the Supreme Court judges’ houses when things didn’t go our way. We didn’t throw temper tantrums. I think it’s … on us to always act fairly and pay the tit for like No,” he said.
Protests are also expected in the Supreme Court and across the country on Saturday.
Thomas speaking in front of an audience as part of a conversation with John YuJoe is now a Berkeley law professor, but worked for Thomas as a law clerk in the early 1990s.
Each justice typically has four law clerks each year and the current group of law clerks has been the focus of speculation as to a possible source of leakage of draft opinion. They are one of the few groups, along with judges and some administrative staff, who have access to draft opinions.
Thomas also answered some questions from the audience, including one about the friendship between liberal and conservative justices in court, such as a famous friendship between the late liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. and the late Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, “How can we foster that same type of relationship within Congress and within the general population?” the man asked.
“Well, I’m worried about keeping it in court for now,” Thomas replied. He spoke candidly about former colleagues. “This is not the court of that era,” he said.
Despite his comments, Thomas seemed to be in good spirits – laughing heartily at times. Yu, who is known for writing the so-called “torture memo”, which George W. The Bush administration justified using “enhanced interrogation” techniques after the September 11 terrorist attacks, saying at one point that they had taken photographs of notes Thomas had taken during the conference.
“You’re going to leak them?” Thomas asked with a laugh.
Yu replied: “Well, I know where to go… Politico will publish whatever I give them now.”
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