The news is all over that Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas broke his 10-year silence (a record!) during yesterday’s oral arguments in Voisine v. United States.
And the reason he spoke up? To question the gun ban that exists for domestic abusers. During a five-minute exchange with Ilana Eisenstein, the lawyer for the government, the conversation focused:
largely on the impact that the domestic violence gun ban has on Second Amendment rights.
One of his questions to the esteemed lawyer was:
“Would you have a better case if this were a gun crime?”
The chair of the recently-departed (and chatty) Antonin Scalia, perhaps the court’s third-most conservative justice was draped in black next to him. Thomas is widely considered the Court’s most conservative justice.
Somebody forgot to bring him a cookie.
It’s just perfect that Thomas’ first foray into oral arguments in ten years focused on something the Court refused to consider when it decided to review the case: whether the ban on possession of firearms by individuals convicted of domestic violence violated their rights under the Second Amendment.
I didn’t realize Thomas was the most conservative on the SCOTUS. I am puzzled by his silence. How does one in his position even do that?
Thomas always said he wouldn’t say much because he worked from the briefs presented by the parties involved.