Justice Clarence Thomas is finding increasingly creative ways to justify reshaping long-standing laws.
During a rare appearance at Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, the George H.W. Bush–appointed justice said the Supreme Court should take a more critical approach to settled precedent, arguing that decided cases are not “the gospel,” ABC News reported.
Thomas, 77, compared his Supreme Court colleagues to passengers on a train, and said: ”We never go to the front to see who’s driving the train, where is it going. And you could go up there in the engine room, find it’s an orangutan driving the train, but you want to follow that just because it’s a train.”
He reasoned that some precedents were simply “something somebody dreamt up and others went along with.”
This is correct, but not in the sense that he provides. Society changes, what was okay before may not be okay now. Weighing precedent and modern society is a careful process. Tossing off precedent should have justification for why it’s being shrug and there needs to a preponderance that this is indeed the shift of society.
Walking in and saying, “well we should just outright critical” is absolutely not the way to do it. Overturning previous case law should happen, but that shouldn’t be the fucking default. And when you do overturn previous case law, you really need to bring a fuck ton of support, not, “meh we changed our mind.” Being a contrarian for sake of rocking the boat isn’t how our highest court should operate.
Yes, but on the other hand: he got his and fuck yours.