Jesse Wegman, a member of the NYT editorial board, who wrote a book advocating the outright elimination of the Electoral College, now sets his sights on eliminating the sole black member currently sitting on the Supreme Court. Why? Because Justice Thomas’s wife, Ginni, is an outspoken political partisan of the Right. Does Wegman offer any evidence that the wife’s politics have made any difference to the judicial opinions written by her husband or in the votes he has cast on the High Court? No. He does not. Even the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, which Wegman’s article links to, does not require a judge to recuse himself simply because the judge’s spouse is politically active.
According to that code:
“Canon 2: A Judge Should Avoid Impropriety and the Appearance of Impropriety in all Activities . . .
(B) Outside Influence. A judge should not allow family, social, political, financial, or other relationships to influence judicial conduct or judgment.”
If Wegman were truly interested in "fundamental fairness," as he claims, rather than in shifting the balance of the Court to the Left by removing a conservative member, then he would encourage the Court to discipline its own and rein in any inappropriate behavior by its individual members. Instead, Wegman wants to give Biden the chance to replace a conservative with a liberal by calling for Justice Thomas to step down from the Court.
Would it look better to the public -- Left, Right, and Center -- if Ginni Thomas were to retire from partisan political advocacy? Yes, probably it would. Should Justice Thomas retire or be removed from the Court if his wife remains politically active? No, not unless it becomes demonstrably clear that her political activities have resulted in his changing his voting pattern on the Court. That, however, does not appear to be the case. It's my understanding that Clarence Thomas's conservatism has been a consistent feature of his votes and opinions for the last 30 years that he has served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
