Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, a prominent conservative activisit and wife of SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas, acknowledged for the first time in an interview on Mon. that she attended the "Stop the Steal" rally preceding the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
She claims, however, that she left the rally on the Ellipse before President Trump took to the stage and called on his supporters to "fight like hell."
In a show of good will and transparency, Thomas has opened up about her limited involvement in the regretable events of that day. She has condemned the violence that took place at the Capitol, and her work as a proponent of conservative values has nothing to do with her husband's work on the bench.
Thomas has been an outspoken critic of the House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6 and she has extensive ties to dark money influence groups like Turning Point USA and the Council for National Policy. It strains credulity to believe that she was just an innocent bystander who left the Rally because she got cold.
Law and politics are distinct. Judges do law, politicians do politics. At least, that's what some SCOTUS justices would have us believe. But too often that distinction is muddied by contentious hearings and even the nominee confirmation process. Justices must stop unnecessarily affiliating themselves with partisan positions or figures, or at least recuse themselves when appropriate. At stake is the very legitimacy of our courts and the rule of law itself.