Clarence Thomas Hates the “Hideous Place” That Made Him Rich
The Supreme Court justice claims he can’t stand Washington, but he has the capital city to thank for all of those wealthy friends who have treated him to lavish trips and luxury goods.
Matt Ford
May 14, 2024
Supreme Court justices are not above shaping their own public images. Many of them write books, either biographies about their own lives or general treatises about their view on the law. They often speak to law students and fellow judges in public appearances and (occasionally) grant interviews to news outlets.
But none of them can hold a candle to Justice Clarence Thomas, a man who seems to be enamored with his own mythology—and who deeply resents anything that contradicts it or his self-image. Americans saw another glimpse of it last week when Thomas spoke at an Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals conference in Mobile Bay, Alabama.
“My wife and I, the last two or three years, just the nastiness and the lies,” Thomas reportedly told Judge Kathryn Mizelle, a former clerk, at the event. “There’s certainly been a lot of negativity in our lives, my wife and I, over the last few years, but we choose not to focus on it.” While telling an anecdote about a friend in his hometown, he briefly mentioned that the story occurred “before they started attacking my friends; I hope I still have some.”
He also denounced the hostility he said he feels in the nation’s capital. “Especially in Washington, people pride themselves in being awful,” he said. “It’s a hideous place, as far as I’m concerned. Because the rest of the country—it’s one of the reasons we like R.V.-ing. You get to be around regular people who don’t pride themselves in doing harmful things merely because they have the capacity to do it.”
These are Thomas’s fullest public remarks on the ethics scandals that have hounded him over the past year, and they underscore how he views the scandals primarily as a matter of public relations than judicial propriety. Though he loves to cast himself as a martyr, the reality of Thomas’s life and career is that many of his grievances are self-inflicted ones. So when he bemoans the “nastiness” of this “hideous place” called Washington, he should consider his own role in making it that way.
https://newrepublic.com/article/181538/ ... -made-rich 
