The conservative justice was not present for oral arguments on Monday, but the court did not provide a reason why.
Conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was not present at the court for oral arguments on Monday, with the court giving no reason for his absence.
Chief Justice John Roberts said in court that Thomas “is not on the bench today” but would “participate fully” in the two cases being argued based on the briefs and transcripts.
A court spokeswoman had no further information.
Thomas, 75, is the eldest of the nine justices. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority.
The Democrats had the chance to bypass the Senate to get their SC pick in. There was a procedural loophole they could have used to install their pick without a full vote while the Senate was in recess. Obama specifically addressed this option and said he didn’t like using anti-democratic loopholes to get around the issue. If he had said, “OK, the Republicans are refusing to even vote on this so we are going to force it without a vote” then we wouldn’t have had the drunken rapist on the SC. He took the high road and allowed the people who took the low road to make lives for everyone worse. If Sandra Day O’Connor had retired earlier, when she was repeatedly asked to retire while under Obama, we wouldn’t have had Handmaid’s Tale put in the SC.
EDIT: Wrong person. I meant RBG. I swear I’m not sexist and lump all women together, I’m just a moron who is bad with names regardless of their gender.
If Sandra Day O’Connor had retired any earlier she’d still have notified George W. Bush.
You mean Ruth Bader Ginsberg
Whoops!
Pretty much this. Obama sat on his hands with regard to the whole “you can’t appoint justices in an election year” thing, despite having options. I get not wanting to give your opposition reasons to beat the “they’re ALL TYRANTS” drum, but he really should’ve seen that was going to happen regardless.