Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas mentioned the leaked draft opinion on abortion, stating that such a breach raises questions about how long our nation’s institutions will endure “at the rate we’re tearing them down.”
When asked about the leak during a speech at a black conservative conference in Dallas, Justice Thomas said, “I think what occurred at the court is very serious.”
“I’m thinking, ‘How long will we have these institutions if we keep dismantling them at this rate?’ And then I wonder when they’ll be destroyed or destabilized and what our country will look like. And I don’t believe the situation is bright if we continue to lose them,” he concluded.
The draft decision, which was authored by fellow Justice Samuel Alito and approved by Chief Justice John Roberts, was meant to be a reversal of the notorious pro-abortion case Roe v. Wade as well as Planned Parenthood v. Casey — returning the issue of abortion to state legislatures.
Roberts said the document was genuine, adding that it was not necessarily the conclusion the Court would reach. The Marshal of the Court has also been ordered to begin an investigation into how the leak occurred.
Many on the left praised the leak as “brave,” while others were more concerned with the long-term viability of American institutions
“When you lose that trust, it has a significant impact on the organization as a whole. You start looking over your shoulder,” Thomas explained. “It’s similar to adultery in that you can explain it but not reverse it.”
“If somebody said just one line of one decision would be leaked, you would say that, ‘Oh, That is impossible. No one would ever do that,’” said Thomas who has been on the court since 1991, stated. “That was verboten. It was out of anybody’s understanding, or at least their imagination.”
When asked about his colleagues on the Court, Thomas said that the leak has altered the atmosphere of the court.
“This is not the court of that era,” Thomas observed, who was confirmed in 1991. “I’ve known Ruth Ginsburg for about 30 years and she’s been a great collaborator. . . We may be a dysfunctional family, but we are still a family.”
After the leak, leftist organizations posted the home addresses of conservative justices on the internet, causing protests outside their residences and a high police presence. Justice Thomas was taken to an undisclosed location for his personal safety following the doxxing of his home address.