Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, privately praised a conservative legal group focused on “religious liberty” after it opposed efforts to reform the high court this summer, ProPublica reported Wednesday—after Thomas and his wife’s ethics controversies sparked concerns about the court.
Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, leaves a closed door meeting with the ... [+]
Ginni Thomas sent an email in July to First Liberty Institute after it was outspoken against President Joe Biden’s endorsement of court reform measures, and the group’s president Kelly Shackelford recounted the justice’s wife’s message to donors during a July 31 phone call, ProPublica reports.
Biden endorsed term limits and a binding code of ethics for justices in July, following a series of ethics controversies that include concerns about Ginni Thomas’ right-wing activism and gifts that her husband received from wealthy friends.
Shackelford told supporters Ginni Thomas said in an email she “cannot adequately express enough appreciation for you guys pulling into reacting to the Biden effort on the Supreme Court,” as First Liberty has vocally opposed the reform efforts online, in the media and by launching a petition opposing the proposals.
“YOU GUYS HAVE FILLED THE SAILS OF MANY JUDGES,” Thomas wrote, Shackelford recounted on the call, adding, “CAN I JUST TELL YOU, THANK YOU SO, SO, SO MUCH.”
First Liberty has repeatedly had business before the court, ProPublica notes, including representing Maine families who led the court to allow public funding for religious school tuition, a football coach who prayed on the field and a baker in Oregon who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding.
Ginni Thomas’ lawyer has not yet responded to a request for comment, and First Liberty general counsel Hiram Sasser told ProPublica in a statement the organization “is extremely alarmed at the Leftist attacks on our democracy and judicial independence and is fighting to bring attention to this dangerous threat.”
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Shackelford also slammed left-leaning Justice Elena Kagan on the phone call for supporting ethics reforms at the Supreme Court, claiming it shows Democrats are “doing everything in their power” to attack the court. “That is incredible, somewhat treasonous, what Kagan did,” Shackelford said, according to ProPublica’s recording. “The chief justice rules the court. They’re trying to keep the other branches’ hands off of them. And then you’ve got Kagan from the inside really being somewhat disloyal and somewhat treasonous in what she’s doing.”
Shackelford told donors on the phone call Thomas’ email was an indication judges are “appreciative” for doing “something for them that they couldn’t do.” “They can’t go out into the political sphere and fight, and they know they’re trying to protect the existence of the court,” Shackelford said, according to a recording of the phone call published by ProPublica. “And so it’s neat that, you know, those of you on the call, are a part of protecting the future of our court, and they really appreciate it.”
“It’s shameful that the political Left seems perfectly fine destroying democracy to achieve the court decisions they favor instead of working through democratic and constitutional means,” Sasser told ProPublica. While Ginni Thomas has not yet commented on the ProPublica report, she and her husband have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the past regarding their ethics controversies, and Ginni Thomas has said the couple does not discuss their work with each other.
While Biden has endorsed efforts to impose a binding code of ethics and term limits, the measures face long odds of actually happening. Republican lawmakers have been staunchly opposed to any efforts to reform the court, claiming Democrats are trying to retaliate against decisions they don’t like. That makes it all but impossible that any measures could get the votes needed to pass—even if Democrats get control of the House and Senate in November. Democrats could try to pass legislation if they were to abolish the filibuster in the Senate, which would allow reform measures to pass with a simple majority rather than 60 votes. ProPublica notes First Liberty has lobbied against filibuster reform in the past, and claims to have successfully helped persuade Sens. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., not to support it. “We stopped this from happening,” Shackelford alleged on the call.
The Supreme Court has faced growing criticism for a series of ethics controversies that have ramped up pressure for justices to have a binding code of ethics like lower federal judges. Clarence Thomas and his wife have particularly garnered criticism, as a series of reports detailed how Thomas has accepted luxury vacations and other gifts from real estate magnate Harlan Crow and other wealthy friends without disclosing them on his financial disclosures. (Thomas has denied any wrongdoing, claiming he did not have to disclose the gifts.) Ginni Thomas’ activism has also sparked concern, particularly after reports emerged that she supported the effort to overturn the 2020 election as her husband was considering cases about it. She has also denied any wrongdoing. The ethics scandals—which have also involved other justices, particularly Samuel Alito—have led Democrats to pursue ethics legislation in the Senate, though their efforts to pass the measures have repeatedly failed. The Supreme Court announced in November it was imposing a new code of ethics on itself in response to the criticism, but ethics experts have criticized that code as being largely toothless because it doesn’t include any enforcement mechanism to punish the justices if they don’t follow it.