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Justice Clarence Thomas' participation in the Supreme Court decision that restored Donald Trump to 2024 presidential primary ballots is "stunning," according to an experienced former federal prosecutor.
"Thomas participated in this decision and will apparently do so in the presidential immunity appeal too, despite his wife's involvement with the movement to keep Trump in office," Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney in Alabama who was nominated by then-President Barack Obama, wrote in her newsletter, Civil Discourse.
"If that's not a conflict of interest, it's hard to contemplate what would be."
Thomas participated in the case despite calls to recuse himself because of his wife's support of Trump's effort to undo his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election, which culminated in the Capitol riot. Virginia "Ginni" Thomas also attended the rally before Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
The justices unanimously overturned a decision by the Colorado Supreme Court to kick the former president off the state's Republican primary ballot under a post-Civil War constitutional provision.
It was the first case at the Supreme Court dealing with Section 3 of the Amendment, which bars former officeholders who "engaged in insurrection" from holding office again. Colorado's top court decided that the provision could be applied to Trump, who it found incited the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In an unsigned opinion issued ahead of the Super Tuesday primaries, the justices said states can't invoke Section 3 to keep presidential candidates from appearing on ballots and only Congress can enforce it.
The decision ends efforts in Colorado, Maine, Illinois and elsewhere to kick Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, off the ballot over his efforts to overturn his 2020 loss.
Vance, a frequent Trump critic, said Thomas is "technically a free agent when it comes to applying the ethics rules to himself, but it's stunning, and we should all stay outraged that neither the Chief nor any of the other Justices have found a way to apply pressure to him."
Congress "should complete its work on mandatory ethics rules for the Supreme Court," she added. "They've proven that self-governance doesn't work where the highest court in the land is concerned. It's outrageous."
Vance and Thomas, through a Supreme Court spokesperson, have been contacted for comment via email.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, also pointed to Ginni Thomas' role while expressing disappointment in the court's decision.
Asked if she thought the court is partisan during an interview on MSNBC, Griswold said: "I think this court has had obviously some pretty big issues. Whether it has been, you know, Clarence Thomas' wife's role, gifts that have gone unreported, and there are some pretty big decisions that have come out of the court that I highly disagree with, and I think strip Americans of our basic human rights and fundamental freedoms."
However, some attorneys have argued that there is no need for Thomas to recuse himself from Trump-related cases because of his wife's activities.
"I think there are people who would like to see Justice Thomas not deciding this case, and therefore they're going to attack him," Carrie Severino, a former clerk for Thomas and the president of Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative legal advocacy group, told ABC News.
"You can spin out a crazy story but why anyone might have some, you know, appearance of impropriety in the eyes of someone who is engaging in conspiracy theories," Severino said, "but this has to do with what is a reasonable appearance of impropriety."
Ginni Thomas was "not even involved enough in Jan 6th to be mentioned in J6 report, not a party, not a lawyer, does not have "interest" in case," Mark Paoletta, an attorney for Ginni Thomas, said on social media last month.
There is "no reason to question J. Thomas impartiality. No reason to recuse. The End."
Update 3/6/24, 9:30 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to add additional comments and context.
About the writer
Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's National Correspondent based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on education and national news. Khaleda ... Read more