Three of the Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed justices made comments over the weekend about free speech, security issues and “lies” about alleged ethics troubles.
Attending the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judicial Conference, Justice Clarence Thomas on Friday pointed to “reckless” people who “bomb your reputation” in response to a question about the mean-spirited world.
“We’re in a world and we — certainly my wife and I the last two or three years it’s been — just the nastiness and the lies, it’s just incredible,” Justice Thomas told the conference.
The 11th Circuit hears appeals from Georgia, Florida and Alabama.
Justice Thomas and his wife over the past year have been a focus of media reports alleging the senior associate justice flouted ethics rules.
ProPublica ran a number of articles noting that Justice Thomas took luxury vacations with a GOP megadonor and received gifts. Justice Thomas defended his trips and association with billionaire Harlan Crow, saying the two are friends.
The reports prompted the high court to implement a code of conduct for the nine justices to follow. Critics, though, say there is no enforcement mechanism to hold them accountable, arguing the code did not go far enough.
Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, meanwhile, spoke at a judicial conference for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears appeals from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. He said unpopular rulings tend to become the fabric of constitutional law, pointing to Brown v. Board of Education, which held that separating children by race in schools is unconstitutional.
Justice Kavanaugh noted that his family receives 24-hour security protection. In 2022, a California man traveled to his house with alleged plans to assassinate him, apparently outraged over pending decisions in cases dealing with guns and abortion.
Protesters also gathered outside his home following the high court’s ruling in 2022 overturning Roe v. Wade, which had given women a national right to abortion and sent the issue of abortion back to states to decide.
He said the protests outside his home have died down over time.
Justice Kavanaugh also stressed federal judges “stay as far away from politics as possible.”
“It’s an everyday thing. I don’t think it’s a ‘flip the switch.’ It’s showing up every day in the courtroom and trying to be respectful of the parties in a way that is clear and understandable,” Justice Kavanaugh said.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who is Catholic, made his remarks Saturday in a commencement address at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, commenting on the state of free speech and saying support for it is “declining dangerously.”
“Right now in the world outside this beautiful campus, troubled waters are slamming against some of our most fundamental principles,” Justice Alito said.
“Support for freedom of speech is declining dangerously,” he said, adding that college campuses are where the exchange of ideas should take place.
“Very few colleges live up to that ideal. This place is one of them … but things are not that way out there in the broader world,” he said.
In recent weeks, student protests over the war between Israel and Hamas have broken out across U.S. college campuses, causing some to cancel commencement addresses and call police to clear pro-Palestinian encampments.
The series of comments from the justices come as the high court is wrapping up its 2023 term, with a series of high-profile cases expected by the end of June.
The justices will decide if former President Donald Trump has immunity from criminal prosecution, if emergency rooms in states that ban abortion have to perform the procedure and the limits of the Second Amendment in a case over domestic violence offenders and their ability to possess firearms.