In 1969, Associate Justice Abe Fortas, appointed to the Supreme Court in 1965 by his “good friend”, President Lyndon B. Johnson, resigned, due to an ethics scandal, and accusations that he was too partisan and close to his long time friend.
Fortas had been nominated to replace Chief Justice Earl Warren, but members of his own Democratic Party, as well as opposition Republicans, negated that, and under fire, Fortas retired from the Court after less than four years of service.
Now, 54 years later, we have Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, appointed by President George H. W. Bush in 1991 to replace retiring Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall, under fire for much greater ethics violations, with calls for his resignation or impeachment after 32 years on the Supreme Court.
Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, was involved in the promotion of opposition to the counting of the Electoral College votes in the Presidential Election of 2020, and Thomas himself was willing to work to prevent the confirmation of Joe Biden as the winner of the Presidency.
Additionally, Thomas has not reported income and real estate dealings with powerful and wealthy right wing promoters, including Harlan Crow, and clearly, Thomas is the most right wing extremist member of the Court, more so in many respects than former Associate Justice Antonin Scalia.
Thomas has a “chip on his shoulder”, since the investigation of sexual harrassment against Anita Hill complicated his nomination to the Court in 1991, with the vote for his confirmation being the closest in the 20th century by the US Senate.
He made the statement that he would stay on the Court to double his age at the time, 43, to “confound the damn liberals”, so he was already in 1991 ill qualified to sit on the Court with such a biased view of his role!
It is time after nearly 32 years, and 12th longest service on the Court, for Thomas to leave the Court, which he has stained with his corruption from his nomination until today’s controversies!