The Latest ProPublica Story About Ginni Thomas
ProPublica obtained a recording of a call that the First Liberty Institute held with donors. [For full disclosure, I have spoken at several First Liberty events.] As readers of this blog likely know, First Liberty has litigated landmark religious liberty cases before the Supreme Court, including Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, Groff v. DeJoy, and Carson v. Makin.
The biggest reveal is that Kelly Shackelford, the organization’s longtime leader, read over the call an email he received from Ginni Thomas. Thomas praised First Liberty’s efforts to oppose so-called Court “reform.” And here is the quote that has generated the most attention:
“YOU GUYS HAVE FILLED THE SAILS OF MANY JUDGES. CAN I JUST TELL YOU, THANK YOU SO, SO, SO MUCH.”
In the Washington Post, Ruth Marcus calls on Justice Thomas to recuse himself from any case involving First Liberty:
There isn’t merely an ethics code to which the justices have voluntarily subjected themselves, albeit under duress. There’s a federal law that requires justices, like all other judges, to recuse themselves in situations in which their impartiality might reasonably be questioned.
Clarence Thomas, apparently, didn’t think matters rose to that level when it came to election-related cases. But how can he justify continuing to sit on cases involving First Liberty now that we know Ginni Thomas’s is “SO, SO, SO” beholden to the group?
Nothing about the remark suggests that Justice Thomas is “beholden” to First Liberty. But even assuming there was merit to the claim, Marcus’s charge misses the mark, wildly. Let’s review some history.
First, during the New Deal, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes wrote a letter to Congress to oppose the Court Packing
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