More than 100 former clerks have signed an open letter defending Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s character and integrity. Thomas has been under a withering assault on his character as both he and his wife Ginnie have run afoul of the left’s smear machine.
Ginnie is a conservative lobbyist and the left has been trying to portray her influence on her husband as malignant. But it is the attack on Justice Thomas’s character and integrity that has spurred many of his former clerks to come to his defense.
Thomas has been under fire for accepting gifts and perks from his billionaire friend Harlan Crow, including trips to expensive resorts, private jet flights, and tickets to sporting events.
The open letter refers to Thomas as “a man of greatest intellect, of greatest faith, and of greatest patriotism,” denouncing the smears made against him.
“And these stories are malicious, perpetuating the ugly assumption that the Justice cannot think for himself. They are part of a larger attack on the Court and its legitimacy as an institution,” the letter declared. “The picture they paint of the Court and the man for whom we worked bears no resemblance to reality.”
“As his law clerks, we offer this response.”
The 112 signatories on the letter include current solicitors general, general counsels, partners at litigation firms and law professors. Three circuit court judges also signed the letter: David Stras on the 8th Circuit, Jim Ho of the 5th Circuit, and Allison Rushing, 4th Circuit.
The lawyers described Justice Thomas’ upbringing, having “descended from West African slaves and born to a young mother, not more than 20, in segregated Georgia.”
“His father left. And a fire took all he had and the shack where he lived,” they described.
The clerks wrote how Thomas as a child later packed all his belongings in “a half-filled paper grocery bag” to live with his grandparents, who enrolled him in a segregated Catholic school run by Irish nuns.
“Different paths led us to our year with Justice Thomas, and we have followed different paths since. But along the way, we all saw with our own eyes the same thing: His integrity is unimpeachable. And his independence is unshakable, deeply rooted seven decades ago as that young child who walked through the door of his grandparents’ house for a life forever changed.”
This doesn’t matter to the left — at least when a conservative black man is being smeared. The New Yorker called the letter “pathetic” because the clerks failed to specifically address the “charges” against Thomas.
In lieu of any engagement with the facts of Thomas’s misconduct, the letter is padded out with biographical detail, in the style of a book report written by a sixth grader. The authors explain that Thomas “descended from West African slaves, was “born to a young mother, not more than 20, in segregated Georgia.” We learn “His father left. And a fire took all he had and the shack where he lived,” and even receive details of major world events that took place during his life. (“Then came 1968. King was assassinated. Then Kennedy. It transformed him. He left behind hopes of the priesthood. He found Black Power. He wrote about revolution.”)
In essence, the New Yorker is rejecting the premise of the letter — Thomas’s integrity is beyond reproach — because the clerks don’t mention that Thomas hung around with billionaires, and he flouted the left-wing dogma that Supreme Court justices are only “good” justices if they issue decisions leftists agree with.
The clerks didn’t have to address each and every charge made against Thomas. All they had to do was state the obvious:
“Lately, the stories have questioned his integrity and his ethics for the friends he keeps. They bury the lede. These friends are not parties before him as a Justice of the Court. And these stories are malicious, perpetuating the ugly assumption that the Justice cannot think for himself.”
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The left wants to force Thomas off the court in order to give Biden the opportunity to appoint a radical leftist. Their other attacks on Amy Coney Barrett and Samuel Alito are backed by other billionaires who disagree with Thomas. The goal is simple: flip the Supreme Court from right to left without having to go through all that messy democracy stuff like electing a president who would then appoint justices when a seat opens up either because of death or retirement.
The clerks have defended Justice Thomas in the only way that matters: by declaring that the charges against him are without substance because of his character and his personal integrity.
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