When the judge’s spouse is a wingnut | Editorial

The New Jersey Star-Ledger ^ | March 20, 2022 | By Star-Ledger Editorial Board

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, sits on a board of the Council for National Policy, an ultra-conservative organization that encourages political leaders to contest the 2020 election results. As such, she signed an open letter in December calling for the removal of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger from the Republican party for joining the House Jan. 6 Committee.

That is no surprise, as Thomas consistently shares the political viewpoint of the loony aunt who lives in the basement. She believes that America is under threat from the “deep state” and the “fascist left” and from “transsexual fascists.” It’s also no surprise that she attended the Jan. 6 rally herself, as she admitted last week.

But it’s challenging for the Thomases to avoid conflicts in their separate jobs, so they have simply stopped trying.

Federal judges are guided by a code of conduct. Among them: A judge cannot sit in judgment of something that involves a family member; and the judge must recuse even if there is the appearance of impropriety.

Unfortunately, the rules are different in the highest court, where justices decide for themselves whether they have a conflict, and Thomas has rarely made such a decision in his three decades on the bench.

So the Thomases make the rules as they go along. Besides her CNP perch, Ginni Thomas founded a group with Trump acolyte Steve Bannon, which wages a “30-front war” on issues already before the court, such as voting rights, immigration and abortion.

Approval of the court has fallen to a record-low 40%, 72% of Americans support a stronger code of ethics, and nearly 80% favor term limits.

That’s a historic rebuke for the most unimpeachable branch of government, which no longer even makes the effort to rise above the political vitriol.

[generally]

I didn’t know this about Ginni Thomas.

Now that I know, I love her.