Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas issued a dire warning about governance in Washington during a speech at the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday night.
Thomas’ speech comes three days after the occasion of his 25th anniversary on the court, and he used the opportunity to sound the alarm about destructive politics in D.C. Thomas said he was hopeful the confirmation process to fill the void created by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death could be improved, but that the political environment is toxic.
“This city is broken in some ways. I think that we have become very comfortable with not thinking things through and debating things,” Thomas said. “At some point, we have got to recognize that we’re destroying our institutions and we’re undermining our institutions.”
Thomas continued to explain that he chooses not to personally attack colleagues he disagrees with because, “It’s important for me to leave them standing and leave the institution standing.”
“One of the things I tell my clerks is just simply, you just simply try to live up to the oath, you took an oath to show fidelity to the Constitution and live up to it,” Thomas said. “Yeah in this city that doesn’t go for a lot, you take heat for it or whatever, but that’s part of the job.”
When Thomas talked about the Court’s decreasing caseload, he noted that fewer pieces of major legislation are passing Congress and cited Obamacare as the most recent example. He zinged Obamacare’s proper title, the Affordable Care Act as “kind of a misnomer considering all the things that are going on.” Obamacare’s prices have spiked, as the Washington Examiner previously reported.
Thomas also talked about his annual bus trips with his wife around the country to see what he described as the places between the destinations that Americans fly over on a daily basis. He equated the racial segregation he experienced as a child growing up in Georgia with political correctness in society today, insofar as both created fear that prevented people from talking to one another and going to various places. Thomas discussed his trips across the country as the physical embodiment of freedom for him in today’s America.
