Justice Clarence Thomas at a Library of Congress event in 2018. Although I don’t always agree with them — how dull if I did! — I think the nation is generally well-served by Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. Thomas is a candid and original thinker whose jurisprudence is misconstrued by those who don’t bother to read or understand it. Alito is equally forthright, though the opposite of an original thinker; he is the epitome of the conservative legal tradition. Both justices have displayed an attractive disdain for showboating. So it was disappointing to read a threadbare statement written by Thomas, joined by Alito, that was appended to a unanimous decision of the court not to hear the appeal of Kim Davis, a Kentucky public official who refused to issue marriage licenses because of her personal religious views against same-sex unions. It was an odd document, not a dissent; just a four-page grumble about matters that may someday be a problem depending on the facts of unknown future cases. The justices might consider woodworking, because, from the looks of this, they don’t have enough to keep them busy. The statement, which carries no legal weight, […]
