Thomas worries respect eroding for institutions

In speech at conference, justice refers to recent ‘unfortunate events.’

Justice Clarence ATLANTA — Thomas said Friday the judiciary is threatened if people are unwilling to “live with outcomes we don’t agree with” and that recent events at the Supreme Court might be “one symptom of that.”

Thomas, speaking to judges and lawyers at the 11th Circuit Judicial Conference, did not refer directly to the leak of a draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, a colossal breach of the court’s procedures.

But he referred a couple of times to the “unfortunate events” of the past week, and in a question-and-answer session led by a former clerk, he said he worried about declining respect for institutions and the rule of law.

“It bodes ill for a free society,” he said. It can’t be that institutions “give you only the outcome you want, or can be bullied” to do the same, he said.

The court’s longest-serving justice said he also worried about a “different attitude of the young” that might not show the same respect for the law as past generations. “Recent events have shown this major change,” he said.

The leaked February draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, and made public by Politico, made the case for overturning Roe and the subsequent case that affirmed the constitutional right to obtain an abortion, Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Chief Justice John Roberts, who spoke to the same group Thursday, said the opinion was far from a final decision and announced an investigation of the leak, which has shaken a court known for keeping its deliberations private.

Thomas is the member of the court least likely to adhere to stare decisis, the principle of letting past decisions stand. In past cases, including Casey, he called for Roe to be overturned.

On Friday, he did not link his views to the current controversy over Roe but repeated that important decisions he thinks were wrongly decided should be corrected.

“We use stare decisis as a mantra when we don’t want to think,” Thomas said.

Thomas was raised in Georgia before he went north for college and law school and said he is delighted that he is the justice who is the point of contact at the Supreme Court for emergencies that arise from Alabama, Florida and Georgia.

“One of the things I had to learn in New England was bad manners,” he said.

MARIAM ZUHAIB/AP A U.S. Capitol Police officer on Friday hangs a sign on the temporary anti-scaling fence that was installed surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. The leak last week of a justice’s draft opinion on abortion has ratcheted up protests and threats from opposing advocates.

Justice Clarence Thomas is a native of Georgia.