# Justice Thomas wife and the Presidential election **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 25, 2022, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666 "2022-03-25T02:09:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/1 "2022-03-25T02:09:50Z")
[This](https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/24/politics/ginni-thomas-mark-meadows-text-messages/index.html) is surely beyond the pale. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/2 "2022-03-25T02:23:32Z")
Nah, that’s squarely in the suburbs of Dublin in GOPLand. She’s not even calling for Liz Cheney to be drawn and quartered or Trump to be added to Mt. Rushmore. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/3 "2022-03-25T02:44:03Z")
What discussion are you hoping to provoke? Merely posting a link with a brief comment isn’t very useful. I mean, the short answer is, yes. And? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/4 "2022-03-25T02:55:55Z")
Combine that with justice Thomas’s very recent comments: > **[Clarence Thomas: supreme court could be ‘compromised’ by politics](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/12/clarence-thomas-supreme-court-conservative-politics)** > > The court is set to rule this year on divisive issues including abortion, gun control, the climate crisis and voting rights ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/5 "2022-03-25T02:57:47Z")
Neatly dodging the fact that it’s been ‘compromised’ by politics for years. Mostly by Republicans. I think we are about to enter a period of judicial activism like we’ve never seen before. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/6 "2022-03-25T03:37:09Z")
Thomas himself might be a perfectly reasonable and unimpeachable man - I really have no idea, one way or the other - but I feel like Roberts should talk to him about stepping down. I don’t see any way for the court to seem non-partisan with Thomas’s wife messaging the White House Chief of Staff about throwing away the official votes of the states. I would expect that Biden would be willing to make a deal that he’ll nominate a person whom the two of them both agree on as his successor. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/7 "2022-03-25T03:56:46Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I would expect that Biden would be willing to make a deal that he’ll nominate a person whom the two of them both agree on as his successor. Herschel Walker? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/8 "2022-03-25T05:03:09Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Thomas himself might be a perfectly reasonable and unimpeachable man - I really have no idea, one way or the other - but I feel like Roberts should talk to him about stepping down. I don’t see any way for the court to seem non-partisan with Thomas’s wife messaging the White House Chief of Staff about throwing away the official votes of the states. > > I would expect that Biden would be willing to make a deal that he’ll nominate a person whom the two of them both agree on as his successor. It must be great to still live in 1992 when politics was still rational, the Republican Party thought immigration was a net benefit, and America only engaged in military adventures that it could easily win and persuade the media were totally justified without resorting to fraud. It’s just…I hate to inform you that three decades into the future partisanship is considered an unalloyed virtue onto itself and nobody involved feels compelled to apologize for attempting to overthrow a legitimate election as if the United States has become one among the many ‘banana republics’ created by the CIA to make high government officials richer. Please get back in your flying DeLorean and tell everyone to make sure their ballots are thoroughly punched, that Iraq doesn’t have any yellowcake, and Newt Gingrich is just as much of an unvarnished asswipe as he appears. Also, warn them about Dick Cheney (especially Harry Whittington), Enron, and collateralized debt obligations. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/9 "2022-03-25T06:22:20Z")
I agree that that won’t happen. Nevertheless, the things that should happen don’t become more likely when you keep them to yourself. I would strongly argue that saying clear and honest things, which makes sense, which are fair and reasonable, and not being ashamed of that is the second best thing you can do for your country. The first is to vote out people who would protect the gerrymander or otherwise put party over their electorate. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/10 "2022-03-25T07:17:09Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I would expect that Biden would be willing to make a deal that he’ll nominate a person whom the two of them both agree on as his successor. Who the Senate GOP will then label a far-left radical activist when they use the confirmation hearings to rail against them for their blatantly anti-American stances on the culture war issue du jour. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/11 "2022-03-25T10:48:17Z")
Many seem to believe that since they are right, honesty and straightforwardness do not apply to them. Perhaps he has asked her to not be active politically. I don’t know much about the guy, save that I believe Ms. Hill. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/12 "2022-03-25T14:17:57Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Who the Senate GOP will then label a far-left radical activist when they use the confirmation hearings to rail against them for their blatantly anti-American stances on the culture war issue du jour. Which would net them getting a nomination that was free of Clarence Thomas’s approval. That’s unlikely to put them ahead in some way. Republicans in the Senate are smart. They’re not going to throw away a moderate Republican court position and open the slot up for a crazy lefty. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/13 "2022-03-25T14:25:01Z")
He isn’t going to quit, he’s going to leave the court in a body bag. Whether that’s next week or in 20 years we don’t know. He married someone whose cheese has slid off her cracker, that much is clear. We don’t know how much of the QAnon stuff he believes in, I have to believe he is less nutty than his wife. There isn’t going to be a deal where he quits and Biden nominates anyone right of center. If he dies in the next 2 years, Biden will nominate a centrist and if the Senate switches hands in the meantime, this centrist will not get a hearing. ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/14 "2022-03-25T14:32:33Z")
[Here is the NY Times article on it](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/24/us/politics/ginni-thomas-trump-mark-meadows.html) (sorry, paywalled). Some choice quotes: > In the weeks between the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, sent a barrage of text messages imploring President Donald J. Trump’s chief of staff to take steps to overturn the vote, according to a person with knowledge of the texts. > > In one message sent in the days after the election, she urged the chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to “release the Kraken and save us from the left taking America down,” invoking a slogan popular on the right that refers to a web of conspiracy theories that Trump supporters believed would overturn the election. > The committee obtained 29 texts between Ms. Thomas and Mr. Meadows — 28 exchanged between Nov. 4 and Nov. 24, and one written on Jan. 10. The text messages, most of which were written by Ms. Thomas, represent the first evidence that she was directly advising the White House as it sought to overturn the election. In fact, in her efforts to keep Mr. Trump in power, Ms. Thomas effectively toggled between like-minded members of the executive and legislative branches, even as her husband, who sits atop the judiciary branch that is supposed to serve as a check on the other branches of government, heard election-related cases. > Many of Ms. Thomas’s postelection texts are rambling, with little attention to punctuation, and they run the gamut. She calls Nov. 3, Election Day, a “heist,” and repeats debunked conspiracy theories, including one pushed by QAnon that falsely alleged that voter fraud had been discovered in Arizona on secretly watermarked ballots. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/15 "2022-03-25T14:38:53Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > If he dies in the next 2 years, Biden will nominate a centrist and if the Senate switches hands in the meantime, this centrist will not get a hearing. McConnell prevented Odama’s nominee from receiving a hearing, and Biden tried to do so for a Republican. Is there no way to force a hearing? ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/16 "2022-03-25T14:43:46Z")
I don’t recall the incident you refer to- which nomination was that? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/17 "2022-03-25T15:00:22Z")
McConnell refuse to have hearings for Merrick Garland. I can’t google Senator Biden suggesting that a Republican nominee hearing being delayed until the next Presidential election. The hearings were held. > **[Merrick Garland Supreme Court nomination](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrick_Garland_Supreme_Court_nomination)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > > On March 16, 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to succeed Antonin Scalia, who had died one month earlier. At the time of his nomination, Garland was the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/18 "2022-03-25T15:02:31Z")
Thanks I didn’t think Biden tried to prevent hearings from happening the way McConnell did, I couldn’t find an instance where he did. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/19 "2022-03-25T15:03:58Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I can’t google Senator Biden suggesting that a Republican nominee hearing being delayed until the next Presidential election. The hearings were held. Here you go. The “Biden Rule” (which wasn’t, and isn’t, an actual Senate rule) was Biden’s _opinion_, stated in 1992, when he was the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in relation to a hypothetical nomination by GHW Bush during an election year. In 2020, he did, indeed, criticize McConnell for holding hearings on Amy Coney Barrett, as well as for misinterpreting his 1992 speech. But, Biden (in his former role as a senator) was never in an _actual_ position to block or delay an actual nominee’s hearing. > **[PolitiFact - In Context: Is there a 'Biden Rule' on Supreme Court nominations...](https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/sep/21/context-there-biden-rule-supreme-court-nominations/)** > > The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has prompted a look back at what Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666/20 "2022-03-25T16:00:12Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > But, Biden (in his former role as a senator) was never in an _actual_ position to block or delay an actual nominee’s hearing. In fact, the Senate confirmed Anthony Kennedy in 1988, despite the fact that he was a Reagan nominee, the Democrats controlled the senate, and it was an election year. (Now, to be complete with the context, this was after Bork and Ginsburg had been scuttled, so the Democrats theoretically relented once the President got to his third choice. And Kennedy was confirmed at the start of the year. But, it remains the case that he was actually confirmed in the year that a presidential election was held). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/justice-thomas-wife-and-the-presidential-election/961666.md?page=2)