Legal and political elites have spent years entertaining the fantasy that Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, the conservative activist Ginni Thomas, have separate political lives. In 2022, she told the Washington Free Beacon that although she and her husband “share many of the same ideals, principles, and aspirations for America,” they have their “own separate careers, and…own ideas and opinions too.” She continued: “Clarence doesn’t discuss his work with me, and I don’t involve him in my work.”
This is nonsense. Clarence’s work and Ginni’s work are one and the same. And new reporting proves it. ProPublica and Documented reported today that Ginni recently met with a prominent Christian legal organization and thanked them in writing for opposing proposals to reform the Supreme Court—proposals prompted in large part by Clarence’s bad behavior.
“I cannot adequately express enough appreciation for you guys pulling into reacting to the Biden effort on the Supreme Court,” Ginni Thomas wrote in an email to Kelly Shackelford, president and CEO of First Liberty Institute. Ginni told Shackelford that “many were so depressed at the lack of response by R’s and conservatives” to proposals to reform the Court—including, she says, unnamed members of the federal judiciary.
“YOU GUYS HAVE FILLED THE SAILS OF MANY JUDGES,” she continued, in capslock. “CAN I JUST TELL YOU, THANK YOU SO, SO, SO MUCH.”
Shackelford read Ginni’s email aloud on a call with donors, just two days after President Joe Biden called for a package of Supreme Court reforms that includes a binding code of conduct. Shackelford took Ginni’s email as proof that judges who “can’t go out into the political sphere and fight” were grateful for First Liberty’s efforts to stymie Court reform. Shackelford also attacked Justice Elena Kagan as “somewhat disloyal and somewhat treasonous” for her offense of voicing openness to an enforceable ethics code earlier this summer.
When in spaces they thought were private, neither Ginni nor Shackelford gave any credence to the idea that Ginni and Clarence have separate political lives. Instead, Ginni explicitly presented herself as having special insight into the thinking of judges like her husband on matters affecting the judiciary, and Shackelford took Ginni’s appreciation as judges’ appreciation. Ginni and Clarence Thomas are not solo players. They are a democracy-subverting tag team.
The Thomases directly benefit from the Supreme Court’s lack of a binding ethics code, which would presumably get in the way of their lifestyle of political activism and luxury cruises. If Clarence Thomas had a shred of integrity, he would have resigned by now. He hasn’t done so because he knows that he has no real reason to fear accountability—and that his wife is working to keep it that way.
