The Ginni Thomas problem

is actually a Clarence Thomas problem.

Mar 29, 2022

The House Committee investigating the January 6th Insuurection just released 29 text messages between Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and during the time frame between the 2020 election and the events of January 6th.

People, mostly on the Left, are apoplectic and have disjointedly pointed out Justice Thomas’ lone dissent over turning over Trump’s presidential papers to the Janury 6th Commitee via the National Archives. Thing is, though, that Justice Thomas dissents a lot and often on tenuous legal grounds, so it’s kind of a non-starter.

Idealists want to impeach him (the Democrats had Trump dead to rights twice and the nihilists on the Right in the Senate avoided a conviction). Pragmatists believe Justice Thomas should resign. With a Democrat in the White House, Justice Thomas, who has stated his intent to die on the court, is not going to leave the court under either scenario.

It’s problematic that ethical and confict of interest issues continue to dog Clarence Thomas, but it’s hardly surprising. In 2011 on his 20th anniversary on the Court, Justice Thomas refiled 20 years worth of financial disclosures1 to include his wife Ginni’s income and employers. Since taking his seat on the Court, Ginni Thomas has worked the U.S. Department of Labor, Dick Armey (R-TX), who was the GOP House Conference Chair and later Majority Leader, as White House liaison for the Heritage Foundation during the George W. Bush Administration, and then Liberty Central, a Tea Party organization.2

The first three had dozens of cases before the Supreme Court during Clarence Thomas’ first two decades on the court and Liberty Central announced in 2010 that Ginni Thomas would have a more detached role with the organization. And her disconnect from Liberty Central did not preclude Justice Thomas’ spouse from being active in Turning Point USA, the Groundswell Group3, and Stop the Steal. The last of these three is the reason the sudden interest in Justice Thomas — It’s fairly apparent that Virginia Thomas had a more than passing interest in the Supreme Court’s adjudication of the 2020 Election and the January 6th Insurrection.

For the nihilists on the Right if it has nothing to do with Hillary’s emails or Hunter’s alleged laptop, it’s worth sweeping under the rug; but everyone else in goverment is anxious for a political or legal resolution to a crisis that’s been festering for 31 years.

The legal answer is easy. Title 28 of the U.S. Code Section 455 makes it unalteringly clear: Justice Clarence Thomas is required to disqualify himself from any and all cases involving his wife’s political activism which in this particular moment is the 2020 election fraud nonsense and the realism of the January 6th Insurrection.

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Section 455 is full of “shalls” and cute little subsections like

section (a):

“Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”

Section (b) defines various circumstances all too well:

(b)(4):

“He knows that he, individually or as a fiduciary, or his spouse or minor child residing in his household, has a financial interest in the subject matter in controversy or in a party to the proceeding, or any other interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding;”

(b)(5) with emphasis added:

“He or his spouse, or a person within the third degree of relationship to either of them, or the spouse of such a person:”

That defines who could potentially cloud the issue in (b)(5)(iii):

“Is known by the judge to have an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding[.]”4

What this all adds up to is that Justice Thomas should and ought to be recused from hearing an abundance of cases — not merely those limited the 2020 election and the investigation into the January 6th Insurrection.

The question is how to do it?

The political solution is actually easier than pointlessly hoping Clarence Thomas will do so.

File recusal motions and ask the force the entire Supreme Court to confront the problem. Yes, it should be done often and regardless of where legal minds on the Left believe Justice Thomas will stand on a particular legal issue.

For cynics of all ideological bents, some realism. The Chief Justice is enough of an institutionalist to know that Court cannot endure with the impression that it’s a political rubber stamp and it’s up to the Supreme Court to fix that problem.

Of course, if the Supreme Court refuses to deal with Thomas’ violations of Title 28 Section 455; the Democrats can push a very different message — pack the Courts to fix the problem.

US Politics Reconsidered

The Ginni Thomas problem

is actually a Clarence Thomas problem.

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