Low behavior on the High Court

When I was a child, I wanted to be a Supreme Court justice. I had a book about Oliver Wendell Holmes, and those robes looked really neat. But, later, when I discovered you had to go to law school, I gave it up. But I’ve met a couple justices and was able to give them advice: “Have a nice day” or something like that, instead of just “goodbye.”

Now, I want to resume that brief career. I’ve found a justice who needs me. Here’s my advice. Justice Clarence Thomas, if you must ask whether something is permissible or appropriate, give it up. Doubt should tell you all you need to know. If some behavior is all right, that should be obvious. Since 1790, there have been 104 justices and 17 chiefs. Not one of them, I would guess, asked what was proper.

We learned recently that Justice Thomas, for maybe 20 years, has vacationed with his wife aboard a million-dollar yacht of a friend. Thomas explained that he was “advised that this sort of personal hospitality from a close personnel friend who did not have business before the Court was not reportable.” The advice came from unnamed “colleagues,” but no one has come forth or been identified as the author of the opinion. No one has claimed credit for that advice. If his private perks were OK, why not report them as he had the opportunity to do annually.

Sitting on any old bench, much less the Supreme Court, if you must ask if something is all right to do, you probably shouldn’t even consider it. This is the Sherman rule: If you aren’t sure, don’t. That Ginni and Clarence also took gifts from the guy is eyebrow raising. Billionaires I have known, or heard about, give gifts more precious than flip-flops and swimming trunks. What Thomas has received is, I suspect, worth more than all gifts given to Supreme Court justices since John Jay was chief justice in 1790

If Justice Thomas had borrowed a rowboat from an acquaintance, lived free in a rundown cabin with an outhouse on a scummy lake, he still would have demonstrated contempt for the honor of Supreme Court. To the best of our knowledge, no justice for 200 years had to be advised on any similar matter.

For Thomas, his flagrant cutting of moral corners was clear from his beginning hearing. One needn’t believe Anita Hill once to not believe Thomas ever. No other justice, Democratic or Republican appointed, has had to dodge questions about his or her behavior. They were not all saints, I assume, but they managed to sin in a way that didn’t bring dishonor to our most precious institution.

When the first biography is written about Justice Thomas, we will learn that he grew up poor in a shack with a single light bulb, amid the bigotry of the South. We can stand in awe for how far he has come, but a recent poll shows that a majority of Americans “no longer have much confidence in the justice system or Supreme Court.” Clarence and Ginni deserve substantial credit, regardless of how the current abortion issue is resolved.

Norman Sherman of Coralville has worked extensively in politics, including as Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s press secretary, and authored a memoir “From Nowhere to Somewhere.”