Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ remarks on the leaked draft opinion signaling the potential demise of Roe v. Wade has antagonized liberals on social media.
During the 11th Circuit judicial conference on Friday, the conservative justice slammed the leak and the subsequent pro-abortion backlash as an attempt to bully the court into delivering “outcomes” that certain groups want.
He stated, “We can’t be an institution that can be bullied into giving you just the outcomes you want. The events from earlier this week are a symptom of that.”
Earlier in the week, Thomas’ Supreme Court colleague Justice Roberts slammed the leak as well and insisted that the court wouldn’t be bullied into ruling differently. He called the leak “absolutely appalling,” and added, “If the person behind it thinks that it will affect our work, that’s just foolish.”
Since the leak, various pro-choice activist groups have planned protests outside the conservative justices’ private residences and even Catholic churches.
Thomas’ pushback to the bullying elicited many responses from liberals on Twitter.
MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan reacted to the justice’s statements, tweeting, “Don’t get mad at Clarence Thomas for trolling us. Get mad at Democrats in Congress for not even holding investigations into him and his wife, let alone censuring or trying to impeach him.”
Representative Ted Lieu, D-Calif., tweeted, “Justice Clarence Thomas is wrong, again. Governments are bullying women into having government-mandated pregnancies, under threat of jail.” He then accused “multiple” justices of lying about the legal status of Roe v. Wade during their confirmation hearings.
“Multiple Supreme Court Justices lied during their confirmation process about their view of #RoeVWade and stare decisis. Those are the facts,” he added.
MSNBC contributor Dean Obeidallah tweeted angrily, “Clarence Thomas and the GOP now view free speech denouncing a Supreme Court decision that deprives women of human rights as ‘Bullying.’ Thomas like the rest of GOP want us to shut up and be subservient to them.”
“Not F**king happening! We are just getting started!” he wrote.
“Bully them harder,” tweeted former Bernie Sanders presidential campaign national press secretary Briahna Joy Gray.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .“Person flamethrowering everything everyday for last 30 years now decries large infernos,” quipped The Guardian columnist David Sirota.
And Harvard Law professor Lawrence Tribe quoted Thomas, writing “’It can’t be that institutions “give you only the outcome you want, or can be bullied” to do the same, [Justice Thomas] said.” ‘Bullying women by criminalizing their bodies and their life choices is another matter altogether,’” Thomas didn’t add.”
“The guy appears to be suffering from end stage lack of self awareness,” Talking Points Memo founder John Marshall wrote.
