[Viewpoint] The Troublemaker U.S. Supreme Court Justice Leading the Regression of Social Progress

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the ‘Roe v. Wade’ ruling that guaranteed abortion rights after 49 years. Behind this decision stands a Black justice who has served for over 30 years.

Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice appointed by President Lyndon Johnson, resigned in 1991. Then-President George H.W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas, also Black. President Bush praised him as an excellent example of a successful Black man, but allegations of sexual harassment surfaced during the confirmation hearings. The media and civic groups actively opposed his appointment, leading to clashes with conservative right-wing forces. The Senate confirmation vote was 52 in favor and 48 against. Thomas became a lifetime-appointed federal Supreme Court justice. The chairman of the Senate confirmation hearing at that time was current President Joe Biden.

Justice Thomas has been the only Black federal Supreme Court justice for 31 years. Appointed at age 43, he targeted the liberals who obstructed his confirmation and made his tenure miserable, saying, "I will remain on the Supreme Court until 2034. The liberals made my tenure miserable. I will make their lives miserable too," a statement that was publicized by the media. His resolve was confirmed in the recent ruling overturning abortion rights.

He is a frequent figure in court playing a cruel role of intimidating and coercing the poor and marginalized. Maureen Dowd, a New York Times reporter who has covered him for over 30 years since his confirmation, criticized him with words such as ‘opportunism, fanaticism, fraud, hypocrisy, cowardice.’

Justice Thomas’s focus does not stop at overturning abortion rights. He has warned that he will apply the same reasoning to rulings that legalized same-sex marriage. In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is a right guaranteed by the Constitution. He intends to overturn this as well.

The beginning of the development of the concept of marriage in American civil society was the 1967 Supreme Court ruling in ‘Loving v. Virginia.’ This ruling declared Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law, which banned interracial marriage, unconstitutional. Thanks to this Supreme Court ruling, Justice Thomas was able to marry a white woman. He is the greatest beneficiary of this social progress, yet he is leading a backlash against it.

Moreover, Justice Thomas’s wife, Virginia Lamp, is a far-right political activist from former President Donald Trump’s campaign. She was revealed to have participated in Trump’s conspiracy to deny and overturn the 2020 presidential election results and was summoned last year to testify at the congressional hearing on the Capitol riot.

The U.S. Supreme Court is a fierce battleground between progressives and conservatives. Federal justices make the final decisions on the Constitution and subordinate laws. American society changes rapidly depending on Supreme Court rulings. Justices must maintain a cautious and impartial stance to balance civil society.

In that regard, the current Supreme Court is the worst in history. For the court’s conservative shift, three justices appointed by former President Trump?Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett?join the senior justice Thomas in forming the majority opinion. It is always a 6-3 conservative majority. Chief Justice John Roberts, who is conservative but had maintained neutrality, is no longer central. The continent has begun to boil with intense culture wars.

Kim Dong-seok, Representative of the Korean American Voters Association