Thomas says leak eroded Supreme Court trust, damaged institution

Justice Clarence Thomas said the leak of a draft U.S. Supreme Court abortion decision has done deep damage to the institution and caused people to look over their shoulder.

The Washington Post and other news organizations reported that Thomas said at a conference in Dallas on Friday that the disclosure has exposed the "fragile" nature of the court.

Thomas said in an excerpt posted by CNN that when he lost his trust in the institution, he began to look over his shoulder. You can explain it, but you can't reverse it.

The draft opinion would overturn the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The draft decision was published this month and it was said that five of the nine justices, including Thomas, had preliminarily voted with the majority.

13 states have so-called "trigger laws" that will automatically take effect if a decision is made to overturn the abortion law. Some states have pre-existing abortion prohibitions that have been in place for more than a century.

Conservatives never used the tactic of protests at the homes of justices.

When things didn't go our way, you wouldn't visit Supreme Court justices' houses. I think it's incumbent on us to act appropriately and not repay.

Conservatives never trashed a Supreme Court nominee, as was the case with Clarence Thomas, who had a bitter fight over accusations of sexual harassment.

Thomas has been at the center of controversy this year after the revelation that his wife, conservative activist Virginia Thomas, repeatedly pushed former President Donald Trump's chief of staff to do more to overturn his election loss to Joe Biden.

Critics have said that the justice should not have been involved in cases related to the 2020 election, including a decision that let some Trump papers be turned over to a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Thomas gave no explanation for his dissent from that order.

Thomas spoke at a conference sponsored by three conservative and libertarian groups. He spoke with John Yoo, a University of California, Berkeley, law professor who worked for Thomas in the Supreme Court.