Poor Clarence Thomas; now that America is rid of the most extreme justice of the Supreme Court, Antonin Scalia, he must act on his own. Thomas no longer has someone to tell him how to vote. Now he’s angry; angry that the other justices don’t agree with him all of the time.
The Court is now dysfunctional. A four-to-tour tie forces cases before them to be returned to a lower court. (Thank you Mitch McConnell.) That’s the way it will remain until the Senate approves a ninth justice sometime in the distant future. This has angered the controversial justice; he wants all decisions made by his Court, and in his favor.
The Court receives hundreds of petitions each year, but only agrees to hear a few. This is also upsetting to Thomas, who believes that the nation’s highest court should hear many more, supported by his conservative view, and not allow the rulings of a lower court to stand.
When Scalia was alive, Thomas was famous for seldom speaking a word; almost never asking questions of petitioners or dissenters. Unfortunately, Thomas is no Scalia. Although no one who believes in justice is sorry that he is no longer with us, Scalia had a brilliant mind; Thomas does not. He labors to apply his personal beliefs to cases before the Court.
Maybe it’s time for Roberts, Alito, Kennedy, and Thomas to meet with McConnell and demand that he return the court to a functioning branch of our federal government. But I doubt that any of them have the courage to do the right thing.
Op-Ed
By James Turnage
Photo Courtesy of DonkeyHotey
The Truth With No Restrictions 