Photo: Adobe Stock
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has criticized the recent leak of a draft opinion suggesting the court will overturn Roe v. Wade as a “tremendously bad” betrayal of the court’s trust.
Thomas made the remarks in Dallas on Friday while speaking at the Old Parkland Conference, a meeting to discuss the various challenges facing the black community today.
“I do think what happened at the court was tremendously bad,” Thomas opined, adding that there was a time when the notion of such a leak would be considered unthinkable out of reverence for the court.
“It was beyond anyone’s understanding, or at least anyone’s imagination, that someone would do that,” advised the veteran justice of more than 30 years. “And look where we are now, where now that trust or that belief is gone forever.”
Thomas decried the protests that have broken out in front of his fellow conservative justices’ homes, calling them a departure from the long-held respect for the court. Earning applause, he emphasized the importance of maintaining civil discourse.
“It is incumbent on us to always act appropriately and not to repay tit for tat,” he noted, adding, “We are to conduct ourselves better than they conduct themselves.”
As for the direction and future of the country, Thomas expressed concern over the consequences of continued attacks on the court and other institutions necessary to a free society.
“I wonder how long we’re going to have these institutions at the rate we’re undermining them,” he said. “And then I wonder, when they’re gone or destabilized, what we’re going to have as a country – and I don’t think that the prospects are good if we continue to lose them.”