SCOTUS, Supreme Court

SCOTUS Retirement Watch: Clarence Thomas To Hang Up His Robe?

Could it be? Could Justice Clarence Thomas actually be considering retirement?

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Justice Clarence Thomas

Justice Clarence Thomas

Could it be? Could Justice Clarence Thomas — the jurist whose Supreme Court confirmation once hung in the balance because of the alleged placement of an errant pubic hair on a can of Coke, the jurist who remained silent on the highest bench in the land for 10 years and one week — actually be considering retirement?

According to a piece by Washington Examiner reporter Paul Bedard, Justice Thomas is supposedly “mulling retirement after the presidential election.” From his report:

Thomas, appointed by former President George H.W. Bush and approved by the Senate after a bitter confirmation, has been considering retirement for a while and never planned to stay until he died, [court watchers] said. He likes to spend summers in his RV with his wife.

Depending upon the outcome of Election 2016, Justice Thomas’s retirement could wildly impact the Court. Because the Senate has failed to act on Merrick Garland’s nomination to the high court by President Obama, either of our presidential candidates will likely have the chance to appoint two justices. If Donald Trump were to be elected, then he would presumably appoint two conservative justices, thus returning the Court to its former 5-4 slight conservative majority. If Hillary Clinton were to be elected, she’d have the chance to shift the Court further to left, appointing two liberal justices for a 6-3 majority. If Justice Kennedy were to retire, that liberal majority would increase to 7-2. (Under a Clinton presidency, the Court’s liberal majority would rule until at least 2050.)

Don’t get too excited about the Supreme Court’s conservative mute hanging up his robe just yet. Ginni Thomas, Justice Thomas’s long-suffering wife, quickly shot down this retirement gossip as “BOGUS.” She wrote the following in a Facebook post:

For all those who are contacting me about the possibility of my husband retiring, I say — unsubscribe from those false news sources and carry on with your busy lives.

IT. IS. BOGUS! Paul Bedard needs to find a phone in his life and unnamed sources are worth as much as their transparency is.

A funny close friend wrote me: “Next we’ll hear that you and he have bought a small private island near Nevis, with a large satellite dish so that all the Nebraska college sports games won’t be missed, and a large Green Egg that can slow cook the indigenous wild boar. Let us know when you are shipping off so we can all chip in to buy a suitable retirement present for your husband — perhaps matching lounge chairs and umbrellas.”

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Ginni Thomas followed up on her Facebook post with this comment: “Distracting Click-Bait by desperate people who want clicks…..disgusting of Paul Bedard and more now….”

Until we hear otherwise from the judge himself, we suppose we’ll have to trust Justice Clarence Thomas’s mouthpiece as to his would-be reported retirement plans.

Wife of Clarence Thomas dismisses justice’s retirement talk as ‘bogus’ [Washington Examiner]

Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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